Being bilingual gives potential employees a leg up on the competition

     Being bilingual is now one the best skills to have when applying for a job. It is nice to be organized, well rounded, and even being great at multi-tasking, but having the ability to speak and translate another language can give a job candidate the competitive edge they need to obtain employment over someone who doesn’t have this same ability.

     The job market today is very competitive with fresh graduates competing against experienced veteran workers for the same job. One thing that gives certain job seekers the ability to stay ahead of the competition is their ability to speak Spanish, or French, or Chinese or any other language. According to the table to the right, one of the biggest barriers of targeting the Hispanic population is the ability of companies to hire and train bilingual staff. Companies look for candidates with these qualities because it adds to their diversity and makes it easier for a company to converse or cater to a population that speaks a language other than Spanish.

     Even beyond trying to obtain a job, it’s a great asset to have while at your place of employment. Spanish is America’s second language, unofficially. With over 34 million Hispanics in America, it is important to cater to this open market. University of Maryland has many departments that support and cater to the Spanish population. Upon speaking with Jose Fortun, the Customer Service Manager of the Department of Transportation here at the University of Maryland, he shed light on how being  bilingual has given him the ability to communicate with a population that he wouldn’t have been able to communicate with if he didn’t speak this other language.

     Even more specifically, he comments on how it has affected him positively in the workplace. He states that he is often called upon to translate for the person. The fact that he or one other person might be the only ones available to be called upon in time of need increases their value.

    Besides the fact that it is good for the company to be able to reach out an open job market, it is also a good way to make the customer feel more comfortably. Many people feel that when immigrants (legal or illegal) come to America, they should be able to speak English. Even though many people believe this, it is in a company’s best interest for them to make their customer feel welcome and allowing them to speak in their native language can give them this ability. Lisa Holche, a graduate student whom has worked overseas, agrees that being able to speak Chinese allows for the client to feel more comfortable with their company.

     After visiting, http://www.cupofsnarky.com/2011/11/benefits-bilingual-workplace/ one could see that one of the underrepresented markets for Hispanics is the insurance market. The ability to speak Spanish could open up new avenues to reaching this market. This could be a job opportunity for many people and being bilingual can give a person the competitive edge they need to get ahead. This is only on example of the various openings that occur when a person has bilingual skills that can be used to reach a market that does not speak English. According to CareerBuilder.com, being bilingual opens up job opportunities in various job markets. They mention banks and mortgage companies seeking tellers who can converse with their Spanish speaking population, hospitals seeking medical practitioners who can serve patients who don’t speak English well, even salesmen who can sell to the underrepresented population.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-163-Salaries-Promotions-Bilingual-Youre-Valuable/.

     Besides the fact that being bilingual can help obtain employment and advance one’s experience at their workplace, it also thought to boost brain power. According the Washington Post, the ability to speak two or more languages fluently can help to exercise the brain. “Bilingual speakers are better able to deal with distractions than those who speak only a single language, and that may help offset age-related declines in mental performance, researchers say.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39338-2004Jun13.html

     Being bilingual does not automatically guarantee a job, but it does have its many advantages. University of Maryland supports diversity and the rest of America is beginning to as well, therefore America will need a workforce to make this transition to an even bigger and more welcoming melting pot.

Twitter is a great way to promote events

Twitter is a mass medium that is a great for many different things like connecting with friends, knowing what other people are doing, and keeping up with current events. But twitter is also a great medium for advertising events. Twitter promotions are a great way to promote an event, either worldwide or in a certain area. A little while ago, celebrities promoted a Digital Death for World Aids Day via twitter by pledging to stop tweeting until they reached their goal of donations. But even on a local note, the UMD campus tweets to promote events around campus. The Black Student Union used #blackterp to promote events hosted by them. Twitter is a great way to bring people out to events.

The Diversity of UMD: an African student's perspective on diversity and the cultural divide of blacks

The University of Maryland prides itself on the subject of diversity. After all, diversity is the reason why many students attend Maryland. They want to get a well-rounded experience with people of other cultures. Diversity is so big at this school that I used it as a topic for my admission essay. But, is Maryland as diverse as it claims to be. Many students speak on the fact that while according to the stats Maryland may be very diverse; in actuality it is very much divided. I often see the people of the same background separating themselves from other groups.

I got a chance to speak with Michele-Corrine Ako, sociology major from Cameroon. I asked her to explain her feelings on the diversity of Maryland.

Because she stated that she didn’t feel the university is diverse as it claims to be, I asked her to explain the divide between Africans and African Americans here on campus, which is very prevalent on this campus. Her presence on the Executive Board of the African Student Association shed some light on the situation.

Michele Ako explained a divide in the black community. In the university’s past, there was only the Black Student Association. Because Africans felt under represented and a lack of respect for the culture, they created their own African Student Association. Even farther, The Carribean Student Association and Ethiopian Student Association developed from this divide in culture. This divide stems out farther than our UMD boarders.

As she stated, this is just her opinion, but I found it very interesting. It makes me question, is the University of Maryland as diverse is it claims to be?  

The Largest Group of Ethnic Radio, African Americans, need to continue to close the coverage gap without personifying stereotypes

     African American radio is the largest group of ethnic radio listeners. Yes, some stations cater to America’s Spanish speaking nation or other ethnic groups, but African Americans dominate as ethnic radio listeners. In her article, Liana Fahle stated “Asian and Native Americans preferred ethnic newspapers and Arab Americans preferred television.” Ethnic radio is a way to cater to a specific group of people providing them with news, music, and other nuggets of information. Fahle stated that ethnic radio stations serve to close the coverage gap between the information that the mainstream radio stations provide and that information that the smaller ethnic stations. Because some groups go to the radio for their information, quality information should be provided to its listeners. When asked if Fahle thought the quality of the ethnic radio stations suffered because it had such a targeted audience, she disagreed.

     In Liana Fahle’s article, she also pointed out the fact that that sometimes ethnic radio stations personify stereotypes. She gave the example of the widespread support of President Barak Obama on black radio stations mainly because he is black. This personifies the stereotype that a black person should vote for a black candidate because of their race and they are a democrat, with little knowledge of the candidate’s actual platform. Fahle stated that when radio stations personify these stereotypes, it just narrows their audience.

     With the focus on African American radio, it is noted that their audience is the largest. The ethnic radio needs to widen its horizon as far as providing a smaller group with a more diversified view. America is a melting pot, therefore even smaller radio stations that target a smaller audience need to display this diversity to their audience.

Event Planning...More than just a 9 to 5

     

     Being in college is a journey to find what you would like to do with your life. A person might come to college thinking they know what they want to do with their life and end up changing their major two or three times. I came to Maryland as a Communications major with an interest in radio and I already I have ventured from this idea. I have now become more interested in event planning.When I say event planning, many people give me this confused face. The next think out their mouth is “like a wedding planner?” Event planners do not only plan weddings. Being an event planner can mean a variety of events like conferences, school functions, charity events, parties, and festivals. It is a high stress job that needs people who are dedicated and efficient workers. 

      When interviewing Briana Davis, a graduate intern for Green with Envy Events, she pointed out the fact that being an event planner is more than a nine to five job. She stated that some weeks she might work might not work at all while some weeks she is working 70 hours. She also made an interesting point that often the work is done out in the “field.” This statement reminded me of journalism because often journalists don’t sit at their desk, they have to go out and find a story. Like journalist, event planners have to go out and talk to people in order to get things right.

     When asked what a typical event planner did from the beginning of an event to the end, Briana Davis explained her day in the life of an event planner. It starts with the company being contacted by the client, then the company and the client must sit down and review what kind of event they actually want to put on and how much involvement the client would like the event planner to have. Next the event planner has to go out in the field and make reservations, do tastings, budgeting, and so on. The day of the event, the event lanner is there from the start to finish.

     Event planning seems like an exciting, yet stressful job. The planner needs to have good customer service skills, networking skills, connections, budgeting abilities, and a creative touch. I think it’s an interesting career choice that not many people notice.

Radio Entertainment

    

     The radio entertainment industry really began to blossom once the disc jockey was introduced to world. In 1909, the first disk jockey, Ray Newby played records over a small transmitter in California. Later Martin Block, a famous radio announcer, played records as people awaited news of the Lindbergh kidnapping. This is interesting because the younger generation uses the radio to listen to music and usually turn it off when they hear news come on but in the past the radio was their only avenue for news, so the music was just filler.

     The music industry was not always welcoming to the radio. Many radio stations had to use live music because radio stations were not allowed to play recorded music for their first three years on air. Also, many record companies were in fear of allowing free music to be played, therefore they would stamp a record “Not for Broadcast” so that it could not be played on the radio. The issue of record legality on the radio was bought up in court in the case of RCA and Paul Whiteman vs. The WBO Broadcasting Corporation. The court upheld a decision to favor the radio deciding that the radio stations could play music on air without the permission of the artist or the record company. This changed radio forever because now radio was allowed to be an avenue for listeners to hear their favorite music while at home even if they couldn’t afford the record. Also, this became an avenue for artist to promote themselves and their music to a wide audience. More history of the radio and entertainment can be found at: http://www.percyfaithpages.org/A%20Brief%20History%20of%20Beautiful%20Music%20Radio.pdf

     Today, the radio entertainment industry is not doing as well as it once was. According to Rolling Stone, the radio entertainment industry is currently the worst is has been since 1954. In 2008, larger market radios lost about 4% revenue monthly. When I’m at home, I usually listen to 92.3 on the radio. They experienced budget cuts not too long ago and I, as a regular listener could definatley tell the difference. With longer commercial breaks, more advertising, and less and less of the actual music being played, I definatley noticed a lower quality radio. Some of the djs had been moved around to different slots and more syndicated djs were being broadcasted. The local radio entertainment industry was dying and being turned into the syndicated radio for over 50% of the day.

     Radio is facing tough competition today. With the rise of 24 hour music stations on TV, online radio stations using Pandora or iTunes, and mp3 players, is radio even necessary still today? Although it is still it still is suffering today, the top music listening avenue according to the NPC (http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/97920/survey-says-radio-is-still-king-of-music-listening) is radio. Surprisingly, American’s say that most of their listening is done in their car, which was confirmed by our in class discussion. The use of the radio in the car is what is saving public radio right now, but from what I see and the research I have done, public radio is dying but satellite/ internet radio will be on the rise.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize was created in honor of Joseph Pulitzer who left a donation of 500,000 dollars to Columbia State University after he died. The donation was to create awards for journalism, letters, music and fellowships. The first award was awarded in 1917. Ever since, the awards have varied in number per category but usually journalism dominates with the most awards. There is currently one prize for for music, four prizes for fellowships, six for letters, and fourteen for journalism. The Pulitzer Prize is considered to be journalism’s most prestigious awards. The winner in the public service category receives a gold medal, and the other winners are awarded $10,000 each.

In order to enter, one has to distinguish him or herself a writer and submit their entry to the board. The board then picks a winner for each category and the winner is announced every April.  

The Feature Writing Award was presented to Amy Ellis Nutt of the Star-Ledger for her article on the sinking of a boat in Atlantic Ocean that killed six people. The wreck of the Lady Mary was an in depth investigation of how the commercial ship sunk. Results of a U.S. Coast Guard investigation still have not been announced, but several experts interviewed by Nutt and Malok suspect the boat was either swamped in rough seas or forced under by a passing container ship. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/the_wreck_of_the_lady_mary_cha.html

The award for Commentary was presented to Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. She wrote on weaknesses of the property-insurance system necessary to Florida homeowners. In a two-year investigation, St. John inspected the property insurance system and created a distinct database that assessed insurer dependability.  

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110418/BREAKING/110419506

Another interesting award is for Editorial Cartooning given to Mike Keefe of The Denver Post. According to the Pulitzer Prize website, the cartoonist is rewarded “For a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing and pictorial effect, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).” Editorial page editor Dan Haley said it's that kind of interaction with the reading public that makes Keefe invaluable to the newspaper.

This shows that Pulitzer Prize Award is presented for a variety of things from photographs to cartoons to commentary. Even outside of the journalism awards, there is a variety of awards for things like history, poetry, and music.

The Art of Blogging

I have never been one to read or post blogs. I always thought of them as a canvas for people to write their feelings about the world on, not a place to receive valuable and timely information. After completing the reading, I see now that journalist and other experts use blogging as a venue for them to connect with their audience. Blogging is not about a diary rant of everything wrong in the world, but a good blog holds substance, support, and some sort of opinion that made it important enough for the blogger to post.

I am no expert on blogs considering at this point I have only read a few. After thinking about what kind of blogs I would be interested in, I realize that there are certain blogs I visit daily without even making the connection that they were blogs. One example is Perez Hilton. He blogs about entertainment news.  His information is not always valid, but Perez usually links another blog or website where he received the information, not only giving credit where it is due, but also relieving himself of blame if the story is incorrect. What makes Perez Hilton’s blog is his opinion. While his audience may disagree with what he says, they continue to visit to see what outlandish or valid points he makes about the entertainment business.

http://perezhilton.com/

Blogging is important in the entertainment business. It allows for readers to get information from their about their favorite celebrities quickly. It also allows for publicity with the celebrity, themselves. For me, blogging could be used as a tool to promote a celebrity or a product in the entertainment business.

Technology in Promotions and PR

My name is Shiray Steward. I am a communications major with an interest in promotions and PR. Solely based on the name of my major; one can see that it is linked to technology everywhere. How do we communicate? Very rarely now is it on a face to face basis. More and more people use phones, social networking, and email to communicate. Because I am very interested in PR and promotions, knowing what kind of technology reaches which audience is of the utmost importance. Lisa Barone, writer for Small Businesses, discusses reasons for using social media in a business. She stated, “By making yourself available, reaching out to customers and sharing information, you strengthen your community.” http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/09/18-reasons-to-us-social-media.html This is why it’s so important to know what can help a business and hurt a business. What I want to study the effective ways that technology can help businesses prosper. Technology is so readily accessible; we can know what happened to whom and where it happened in a matter of minutes. It’s important for companies and people to have control technology so that it does more good that damage. For example, according to Forbes, Yahoo has grown very little within the last couple of years because they have been absent from the social media world. Even I, a user of Yahoo, can see very few changes made since I began using Yahoo. The CEO, Carl Bartz, was fired because he failed to help Yahoo’s growth. http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2011/09/07/one-big-reason-for-yahoos-woes-marketers-flee-to-social-media/ Maybe if he paid more attention to changing technology and integrated features like Facebook or Twitter, Yahoo would be doing better. Thus, analysis of technology is so important in our world of communications today.