Technology and Journalism

One of the things people couldn’t live without is technology. We all are sorrounded by technological tools, since we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep. Our homes are full of technological tools, such as our loved television, our useful PC or the cellphone we carry with us everytime. So, how could our lives work without technology? That’s a difficult question.

It’s also difficult to answer how a student of communications could study without technology. I’m a student of Journalism and I’ve needed to use technological tools for every subject I’ve studied this year. And that’s an almost obvious thing, because my career isn’t but communications. So, how could we communicate each other if we wouldn’t use technology?

During the whole three years I’ve studied Journalism, I’ve had to work with a lot of technological resources, like tape recorders, photographic and video cameras, among others. However, the use of computers and Internet has been even more essential for every single subject I’ve studied.

Thanks to the World Wide Web, information is at our fingertips now, and that’s a really positive thing to me, because information is the base of my career. That’s the most powerful reason why I must use the Internet. I’m still thinking about how the journalists before the 90’s could do their work if Internet wasn’t a massive tool yet.

On the other hand, last term I studied photography in the university, so I frequently used photo cameras and darkrooms. I even tried to make my own darkroom at home, but it didn’t actually work properly, but I did my best.

Other subject where technological tools are the basics is Radio. Last term was the first time I came into a radio room. It was very exciting to use the radio controller, microphones and the Adobe Audition software. It wasn’t really difficult to learn the ropes on Adobe Audition, in fact, it was really fun to make mixes and paste pieces of audio files and music and etc. However, the hardest thing was pasting the quotes of the interviewed people, because our professor was very demanding with the audio quality of them. Anyway, it was a really nice experience. Adobe Audition is my new best friend now, haha.

Every time I think about these six terms studying Journalism, I realize that technology is always close to me. As a future journalist, I can't deny it, especially the mass media, including the Internet. But the most important thing is that I’ve really loved to use the technological tools my career has brought to me.

Nowadays, if you can’t use these tools, you just can’t grow up professionally, especially the people related to communications. So it’s indispensable that we all update permanently our tech knowledges. In my personal case, I’ll try to learn as much as I can because of two reasons: because I love technology and because tomorrow the world won’t be the same.

Journalism and its challenges

Journalism has had always some challenges to face, especially the Chilean one, which has not actually looked for real solutions, so problems keep with people related to the media.

Technology, for example, is an issue which journalists are closely involved in. Many digital media have arrived to stay (because of the Internet), and it's absolutely important that journalists know how to correctly use the technological tools they have to develop their professional work. However, that mostly doesn't happen in the Chilean context.

Many journalists got a lot of teaching to write for press, you know, for a daily neswpaper or a monthly magazine, but not for those digital media which must inform to people every single minute it passes, because the main feature of the digital media is their immediacy, so these media must be updated frequently, and it's real important to know how to use the tools technology offers to the communication professionals, so they can professionally develop their work.

The important thing here is the teaching the universities give to their students. The schools of Journalism and their teaching should work according to the new tools, so the journalists skills would be up-to-date and they wouldn't have major problems or difficulties while working on a digital media.

In my discipline, social matters are almost always related to the audience. If they wouldn't exist, our job would be an useless one. So, the social context is really important to the journalists. Why? Because they do their work in order to an especific kind of people get informed, that's the basics. However, the information journalists give is not always suitable. Some parts of the contents may deeply affect to some people in the audience. In this matter, it's essential to follow the knowledges about Ethics some time learned in the university. Althought there's a principle of freedom of speech involved in this matter, journalists must always inform with conscience and beware with the consequences their information could provoke in society or in one specific person.

In this case, I think the work of the editors of every media is essential. They can't allow some wrong information spreads and affects to somebody's reputation, for example.

Journalism is now a really "massive" career in Chile. You can study it in a lot of universities, many of which aren't even accredited to be runned. So Journalism is nowadays an "socially underrated" career because the education students of Journalism receive is not always the right one, and then, when they get a job, they do a poor quality work.

To resolve this problem, I think the Ministery of Education should closely supervise every university the career of Journalism is running in, in order to ensure the education that future journalists are receiving is the appropiated one.

Nothing like summer

My favorite season is summer, but there're things that I like about other seasons too.

About summer, I like it because everyday is sunny, so I can go to the beach, go out with mi friends and wear loose clothes.

However, there're some things that I don't like about summer, for example, the excessive heat that suffocates me when I want to do something fun.

I like spring because it's a beautiful season and I love flowers and everything that looks green. Also, spring uses to have sunny days, but with no high temperatures neither excessive heat.

About winter, I like the rain, but only when I can stay home, because when I need to go out to the street or go to classes or something like that, I just hate rain!

Other thing I like about winter is that there's such a special ambient at home that I just want to stay sleeping or watching tv next to the stove.

But I don't like winter when it gets cold and I need to wear unconfortable and ugly clothes. Other things I don't like winter is the fact that it goes dark very early, so the day is very short, and there're times when I can't do everything I want to.

Finally, fall is a season very short to me, and I like that, because this season tends to be a little sad, especially because the trees' leafs get fallen and streets look very bad. That's the main reason why I don't like fall at all.

The changes of seasons signify a lot to me, because the clothes I must wear change according to the season, and also because the things I can do in my freetime depends on the weather, and weather is a serious thing to me. For example, I can't ride a bike when it's raining, but in summer I don't have to worry about weather because I know it will be always a good weather (well, except for some few days when Mother Nature may disappoint us).

Summer is a great source of memories to me, because many of the times of joy I've passed have been in summer. The beach is a good example, you know, sun, sand and sea, and nothing else to worry about! I remember really fresh afternoon in some beach of the north, like La Herradura in Coquimbo, or the Avenida del Mar in La Serena. I will always love those places, when I go in summer overall.

Some ideas to improve the ICEI

My faculty, the ICEI, is actually a very young faculty because the career of Film was just open four years ago. Perhaps that's the reason why my faculty has many facility lacks. Although there're good professors and I almost can't complain about the teaching, infrastructure is really poor.

I think one of the main lacks of my faculty are the cameras. It's really difficult to understand how a faculty of communications doesn't have enough video and photographic cameras, considering there're people studying Film and Journalism. It's absolutely incoherent that professors demand us good and quality works and there're many times that we have no choice but "fight" each other to get a camera.

Another big problem in my faculty is the library. There're not enough books neither movies, so many times we have no choice but go to other faculties to get the books we need, or make lots and lots of photocopies, which is very negative to our pockets.

I think the first step in order to change this situation is to talk to the student representatives (a.k.a. CECo) and entrust them to discuss the problems with the faculty authorities and reach an agreement. I think this must be the very first step in order to demand to our authorities for improvements in the faculty. So that, authorities would enquire about our problems and lacks as students.

The infrastructure problems should be solve by demanding a higher state financing. As being a public university (or that's what it used to be), the State should give more economic contribution to the Universidad de Chile, especially to those faculties which don't have enough and quality facilities (the ICEI, among others). And that demand must be done precisely by the authorities of the ICEI.

These improvements would bring more benefits than negative impacts to the students. We basically could carry out better our academic works, so our learning would be way effective. However, if my faculty receives economic support from the Government, maybe we, the students, would have to pay more for our university education, and that's a big trouble.

I would recommend that the most part of the faculty/campus resources should be invested in educational material and technological tools, instead of put really useless things like security cameras.

Meet the González family

Family is, surely, an essential element to everybody. It's the core of society. In fact, the rest of the social elements wouldn't exist without family.

My family is a very typical one, I mean, as most of the families, it's composed by my mother, my father, my older brother, my little sister and me. As you can see, I'm the middle sister, and that's not actually easy, believe me.

My mother is called just like me, Mabel. She's a secretary, but is not working nowadays. She left her job when my brother was born. My mom engages in housework now.

My father is called Víctor, just like my older brother (by the way, I hate the fact my parents named us just like them). My dad has an electronic business, which is our main source of income. He has spent the last twenty years on it, with almost no vacations.

My older brother is called, as I just told you, Víctor, but we all call him Danny (because of his middle name, Daniel). He's 23 years old and was studying Laws, but he left it when he met his current girlfriend. What a shame, isn't it? Anyway, he's working now and living with his girlfriend.

Mi little sister is called Rosa. She graduated from high school last year, and is taking a year's sabbatical now, while she thinks about what to study next year.

Generally, I have a very good relationship with my family, because my parents are very understanding, my sister is a friend of mine as well, and my brother is a nice guy. However, we all have a very hard and strong personality, and that causes little fights or big discussions into the family.

Regarding my sister, we have a beautiful friendship. I wouldn't say she's my best friend, but we use to have very nice and fun moments together. We have very different tastes, but that makes our relationship a very interesting one. OK, we tend not to respect our personal tastes (such as music, food, hobbies, etc.), but I like discussing with her about I don't like or what she disagrees.

Honestly, I couldn't live without my family. Although all their faults and things I don't like about them, they're essential to me. They play a role of learning in my life, especially my parents. Perhaps I'm a little more indepent since I started to study here in Santiago and live with a cousin and an aunt of mine, but my family is still an indispensable factor to me and to things I decide to do and decide to avoid.

In the other hand, I don't have many friends, but they're really good friends and I'm happy with them. My best friend is called Dánida. She's 21 (just like me) and I met her in school. We studied together since primary and became friends instantly. She's now studying in San Felipe, so we don't meet frequently each other, but every time we do, we like to get out with other friends to dance or simply drink and talk.

My friends mean what my family doesn't mean to me. They can give me advices when I'm a little lost or confused about something or when I'm in trouble. They're probably a little more reliable than my parents, because they know how important are them to me. We also share many things in common, such as tastes, thinkings, ideas and even have a very simmilar forward-looking approach. Those things make my friends very special and important to me.

About influence, it's very difficult to find who has influenced my life more, but I think my family is more influential in the opinions I adopt and the way I think and act. However, my friends play an important role too in the decisions I take. It's like fifty-fifty.

Radiohead: A misunderstood band (sometimes)

I think the first time I listened to Radiohead was in 2003, when I was about 15 and I was on school. The person who "introduced" to me was my brother and I instantly became a fan of them. This band is now my favorite one.

Radiohead is a band from Oxford, England, composed by Thom Yorke (voice), Phil Selway (drums), Ed O'Brien (guitar) and the Greenwood brothers, Colin (bass) and Jonny (guitar and keyboards). I couldn't put them in an only music genre, because they can play rock and electronic music as well. However, press has tagged them as a alternative rock band or even an "indie" band, although I don't like that term.

Radiohead is currently my favorite band because they never stop surprising me, mainly because their albums are very different each other. For example, if you listen to their first album (Pablo Honey, 1993) and then their most recent album (In Rainbows, 2007), you couldn't notice they're from the same band, because Pablo Honey is a kind of a punk-rock album, with very distorted guitars, but In Rainbows is an album full of synthesizers and electronic sounds, although some guitars stay in their place.

I couldn't choose just one song as my favorite. Or, in other words, my favorite Radiohead song changes every time and depends on my frame of mind. But if you ask me now, I would say that it's "How to disappear completely". I guess many people must think that this is a very "sad" song, but maybe they think so because they don't understand it at all. This song inspires me a kind of strange peaceful, so when I want to get relaxed, I just put it on. It creates a very special sorround in any place, and its lyrics are really beautiful. This song talks about how you can, just for a pair of minutes (or even a second), forget about everything worries you, not cowardly, but fairly.

Music is for me a very important thing because it is with me anytime I need it. It's like an implicit partner. I listen to music most of the time, especially when I borely move through the city. I don't know what world would be without music. Life probably would be boring, so I hope it stays forever.

The best concert I have been is the one Radiohead played in march 27th. It was simply awesome, I sang every song along and had a very good time. It was a perfect evening. I just couldn't believe I was in a concert of RADIOHEAD! I remember I went to the airport to welcome them, with other (groupie) Radiohead fans. I was very excited and happy. Such an unforgettable week.

Tabloids lured by celebrity plastic surgery hoax

The Sunday Mirror, News of the World and People have been secretly filmed at meetings they thought were concerned with the possible purchase of private medical information about public figures who had undergone cosmetic surgery.

They were caught in the sting after they were approached by an undercover documentary-maker. He claimed to have a contact working as an administrative nurse in a cosmetic surgery clinic.

The newspapers were offered the chance to obtain confidential medical information about famous clients of the clinic. The filmaker, Chris Atkins, said he came up with the hoax to test "how far tabloid journalists are prepared to go" in pursuit of intrusive information.

The response of three tabloids ranged from cautious expressions of interest to an offer of £3,000 for every story printed.

A fourth Sunday tabloid, the Sunday Express, refused to meet Atkins, telling him his proposal could be deemed illegal and constituted "a gross breach of ethics".

The obtaining of private medical records without a person's consent is usually considered a breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA). Some breaches of the DPA could be justified by media organisations if they can prove obtaining the data was in the public interest.

Atkins said: "We wanted to do a survey of the newspapers to see if they would rise to the bait."

Atkins stopped communicating with the journalists after the first meeting and no money was exchanged.

You can read full article here.

Santiago and 5 places you must go to

I think the very first place a foreign turist should visit in Santiago is the Plaza de Armas. This square is always full of people, and that makes it a really special place to go, because you can observe the real population diversity, from businessmen to homeless. As being the "0 km" of Chile, the Plaza de Armas constitutes one of the most typical and interesting places in Santiago, mainly because there're many important buildings around it, including the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Historical Museum, the Central Post office and the Santiago town hall.

The San Cristobal hill would be the second place to go. Once you are on the top, you can see almost the entire city, at least the downtown. There're many interesting things to see in the hill, for example, the Metropolitan Zoo, which has always scheming animals to see. This could be a perfect family panorama, and a nice way to do exercise, because the San Cristobal is a really tall hill, so you would need an entire afternoon to go to every spot of it.

If you want some culture life, you should visit the several museums in Santiago. One the most important in the city (if not the most important one) is the Bellas Artes Museum. Located in the middle of the Parque Forestal (one of the main and largest "green lungs" of the city), the museum has always very interesting works of art to see, including the painting "El huaso y la lavandera" by Mauricio Rugendas, a very prominent Chilean painter of the before last century.

If you have more time, you can go to Cajón del Maipo, a very green and quiet zone located in the south of the Metropolitan Region. There're many restaurants where you can eat the most typical and tasty food of Chile. Also, you can practice some sports like trekking, mountain bike and kayak. The Cajón del Maipo is a really good place to get relaxed on a sunny Saturday or Sunday.

Would you like to go to the safest place in Chile? Well, then go to La Moneda Palace. Located in Santiago downtown and surrounded of other well-known places (like the Plaza de la Ciudadanía and the Plaza de la Constitución), La Moneda is the most representative political building in the country and where you can visit historic spots, such as Los Naranjos courtyard, and also visit the Cultural Centre Palacio de La Moneda, where there're always (or almost) free exhibitions of Chilean artists.

By going to the places above, you can tell your friends you really visited Santiago and knew its most traditional and popular places.

"¿Dónde está Elisa?": you can't miss it!

First of all, I'm not a big TV fan and that may be explained by the fact that I don't have cable television at home. So, as you can imagine, my television taste is very limited and I almost don't have one.

If you ask me about my favorite television series, I would have to think a lot of it. And now, the only TV series I can think of is "¿Dónde está Elisa?" A television series or a soap opera instead? It could be both, but I don't really mind. The only thing I could say about "¿Dónde está Elisa?" is that it's a national television phenomenon, and very successful, by the way.

"¿Dónde está Elisa?" is a series about a girl (Elisa) who gets lost after a party with some of her cousins. There're many suspects (even Elisa's father, Raimundo, were one of them), but police can't find the real responsible yet. However, everybody in the audience knows that Bruno (Elisa's uncle) is who kidnapped her. Now, the only thing Elisa's family knows is that she's dead and the guilty is closer than they ever imagined.

This series is starred by Elisa Domínguez (a very rich girl who is about 16 years old and had some strange attitudes), Raimundo Domínguez (Elisa's dad, a very important and sucessful businessman who will do anything to find the guilty of his daughter's death), Francisca Correa (Elisa's mom, a housewife very kind and dedicated to her daughters) and Camilo Rivas (one of the detectives in charge of the investigation and who gets sentimentally involved with Francisca).

"¿Dónde está Elisa?" is currently my favorite television series because its story can keep me in front of the television for 45 minutes with no interruptions (well, except for the tv advertisements, haha). Why? Simply because the series is full of little but powerful stories with very particular characters, and the main story couldn't be more schemer. Mistery is one of its more important elements and another reason why I like it.

Technically, I think that in "¿Dónde está Elisa?" there's a good acting, except for some younger and "new" actors who can't really interpret deep feelings and strong scenes. But, in general, there's a very talented cast. In the other hand, production is one of the best ones I've seen in Chilean television series. There're good sets and right locations, which can reflex almost perfectly different situations. But one of the things I like the most of this TV series is the script. Pablo Illanes is who wrote the story and who, I must say it, has very much experience in television work. Although there're other international series or films very simmilar to this one, the special feature of Illanes' work is that he had the skill to bring this story to a very Chilean reality and context.

In resume, "¿Dónde está Elisa?" is a must-to-see television series. Once you watch it for the first time, you can't help following it!

What a problem!

When I arrived to Santiago for the first time, everybody warned me that something terrible was happening in the city: the new public transport system. And well, I just didn't get worried because I thought it could be solved soon. However, the problem is still here with us, the poor people living in Santiago, and I'm almost sure that it will stay for a lot of time.

I think that Transantiago is a transport system that changed the life of every santiaguino and unfortunately, not all for the best. It's also a system that must improve because the number of buses aren't enough according to the routes people can take. This is precisely the main Acchilles' heel of Transantiago: its inefficiency.

Yellow buses? What's that?

2007 was the year I got to Santiago in order to live and study here, and that's the reason why I hadn't the good fortune to use the past transport system. As you can imagine, I didn't arrive in the best moment. I remember that everyone here in Santiago was very worried about if the bus was going to go past, or if they could get to work at time, or what buses could get them home. So it wasn't very hard to get used in the city because everybody was as confused as me.

I remember that it was very difficult to move around the first months in Santiago, because of many reasons, but mainly because the number of buses weren't enough and because of the frequency they used to come past. Also because the buses used to get full quickly and it was too uncomfortable to travel. I remember thousands of very stressed out people around me, very annoyed and talking about the terrible Transantiago.

Today, two years later, Transantiago is a little better. There're more buses and new routes, and although the buses still get full shortly, I think people are starting to trust once again in public transport system. Plus, the subway has been a great help and support to the people who must use the public transport every day.

However, there're many things else to do and resolve. If I had the chance, I would work in buses frequencies in order to people don't have to wait for the bus for a long and, therefore, they could get home or work at time. And I think this could be possible by working and looking after the Transantiago operators. I'd also create new routes and make new and strategic bus stops.

England: the reasons why I'd love to go there

I've never been abroad; however, if I had the chance to travel out of the country, I'd go to England.

Although I'd like to visit nearer countries -such as Peru, Bolivia or Argentina- before going to Europe, my final objective would be England, especially London, Oxford and Someset counties.

It would be amazing and very fun visiting England to me because it's a very rich cultural country, full of culture spaces and most of its cities has an awesome architecture. The Big Ben would be the first place I'd visit because represents English punctuality and that's makes it an emblematic building in London.

But the main reason why I'd love to visit England are the fantastic music festivals developed in many cities of that country, such as Glastonbury Festival, one of the biggest music events of Europe and in the world. I've watched some videos of bands perfomances in "Glasto" -as they use to call this festival-, but I think nothing compares to being right there, camping for a pair of days while waiting for my favorite artists and finally seeing and listening to them live! It would be really exciting.

I know that England is a really special country. Firstly because everyone drives by the right and that turns into a big problem for foreign people. Also because Englishmen and Englishwomen have a particular and unmistakable accent and they are very polite and punctual people, so you can't be late, EVER! And that could be an "special" problem for Chilean people, because we're not exactly punctual, sadly.

I also know about the excellent and famous English chips. I'm a big fan of them, so being in England would be like being in Paradise to me.

If I'd go to England, I'd try to go to the Abbey Road Studios, you know, the world famous music studios where legendary bands like The Beatles (mainly The Beatles), Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Iron Maiden have recorded many of their most acclaimed albums, and nowadays, these studios have seen a lot of young artists growing up. Being there, I'd take as many pictures as possible, especially to the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing where The Beatles were photographed for their "Abbey Road" album cover.

In the other hand, I'd like to meet people and make new friends to exercise my English. They've told me that social life is the best way to learn a new language, so I'd like to try.

I'd love to study in any of the prestigious English universities, but some friends have told me that is really expensive, at least university education. Well, everything is expensive in England! So it would be really difficult to live there, but maybe if I get a scholarship, I would make a postgraduate course.

Good and bad points about the first term

I like being positive, and that's why I'll start writing about the good points about the last semester, which was, by the way, my fifth semester in the university.

The subject I liked the most last term was Radio. I'm not actually good expressing orally, but I think studying Radio has also helped me in other areas, even when I have to write for press.

My Radio professor was a big support to me to achieve academic goals and improve my oral expression. I hope this semester my work in Radio is good as the last term.

Just like the past semesters, I really learnt a lot, but the sacrifies I had to do to get knowledge and good marks were too many. Firstly, there were times when I wanted to travel home, but studies were the main reason why I didn't, so my family and friends were further than ever. In the other hand, I didn't sleep enough and nights turned into "golden hours" to do the things I couldn't do during the rest of the day, especially reading books (not the best matters I've read though), writing reports and transcribing long recorded interviews.

The few free time I had the last semester I dedicated it to travelling home or meeting with some friends here in Santiago. I'm not a sports fan, but gym was a good chance to do some exercise, so I made sure to bring my sporting clothes to the university every free afternoon I had, but of course, there were also times were I just simply wanted to get some rest.

Life is full of challenges, and the last term wasn't an exception. I had to face, for example, being far from my dearest people. Although there're many people around me here in Santiago, there were also days when I was missing my family and friends very much.

Anyway, it was a really good and fun semester, but it could have been better.