Graduating in August with a BA in Communication

Graduating in August with a BA in Communication seeks for Public Relations Career
Austin, Texas August 2008

Contact
Marcela Pineda
St.Edward's University
Communication Student
Email: mail.marcelapineda85@gmail.com
Blog: http://seublog.blogspot.com/

Profile
Reliable professional who has completed two internships
Organized and Creative
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Bilingual (Fluent in oral and written English/Spanish)
Motivated individual

Education
St.Edward's University
Bachelor of Arts
Major: Communication

Computer Skills:
Data entry, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel

Experience:

Marketing Intern, ISI Consultants, Inc.
Austin, Texas
Spring 2008
Contact prospective customers to recruit company investors and build clientele, attend newtworking functions
Assist with company re-branding procedures
Update and maintain server inventory for the city of Austin

Ola Express Carwash
Matamoros, Mexico
Summer 2006
General Manager Assistant
Circulated Promotional Flyers
Researched and Negotiated purchases/Increase company publicity
Promotions/ Increased Sales

Auto Servicio Hernandez, Pemex Corporation
Matamoros, Mexico
Summer 2004
General Manager Assitant
Assisted with clerical support

Divorce Drama on Youtube

Last week we saw in class how a woman who was getting divorced from her husband had made a video about the whole divorce drama. The video was posted on youtube and it has received more then 150,000 hits. What stoke me the most was that I got on CNN.com and found this story in one of the top tech stories on the site. I thought this was unbelievable, before people would get scared if their secret melodramas would come out in a popular gossip magazine, but today the gossip magazine is the Internet. The woman is getting a divorce and trashing her husbands family in the video. I think that a person who makes a video about her divorce is deluded and can loose alot credibility in front of her lawyers and the court. Despite the craziness this video has become quite popular and it's kinda funny to watch.
Social media networks help us to communicate important things, but at the same time I think some people are using these tools for the wrong purposes.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/15/youtube.divorce.ap/index.html

Athlinks

MySpace and Facebook are two of the biggest networking sites today, but some people have preferred to switch to small networking sites where they can focus on special hobbies and topics. MySpace and Facebook have thousand of users in the other hand sites such as Athlinks has less users but they all have something in common. Steven Jones a university professor that tracks the Internet culture said ""What happens is a medium reaches a point where the users of it start to think it's interesting but it's too big, there are too many people, it's too difficult to find what I'm interested in." In comparison to this, I'm a Facebook user and it doesn't bother me that the network has grown so much and it probably has more users than I can imagine. I think this sites are created with the goal of communicating. The more people join the more opinions and ideas will be shared. In the other hand, if you prefer to join a network that focuses on something special that you like to talk about and receive advice, then athlinks is a great networking site to join.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/16/online.communities.ap/index.html

Telepresence

With the growth of companies and the increase of airline tickets its harder everyday for companies to send their employees on business trips. However, technology is always a step ahead and telepresence has played an important role in the communication between companies. Telepresence is video-conferencing that is modified. Conference rooms are equipped with high-quality audio, video and networking technology in order for business meetings to take place. This new type of networking and technology helps big companies to have important meetings without expenses and traveling. I think this is a create invention and it will help many business to have closer relationships with important clients. Some of the companies who currently use telepresence are Teliris, Hewlett-Packard, Tandberg, Cisco and Polycom.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/16/db.telepresence/index.html

World Hunger

World Hunger is an issue that surrounds us all and affects the entire world. This video was made to inspire people to contribute a little bit of their time and money to help all the children and people around the world that suffer from hunger. Every 5 seconds a child dies due to hunger related diseases, so lets all try to help and make this statistics change. If everybody could donate a small amount of money to organizations that help children around the world, we could improve their lives. The video shows some pictures taken of small children who suffer from hunger day by day. Please take a minute to watch it and please help us change this situation.

Democrats and the Web

As elections approach the mailbox of million of Americans begin to fill up and the phones cant stop ringing. The democrats have decided to change that with the 2008 elections, Hillary and Obama have taken the best advantage of the Internet to communicate with their followers and to gain new public. Videos on youtube and information sent to emails have been a huge part of their success in their 08 campaigns."For millions of Americans, the Internet has turned presidential politics into a fully interactive event, a chance to give money with mouse clicks and to volunteer virtually from miles away. And the Democrats have used these tools to produce historic results". I think that the use of social networks on the web has increased the advantage of this politicians to communicate more effectively with their followers. Donating for campaigns with the click of a mouse is easier than ever, and at the same time you become more informed on their positions and their personal ideas. I have watched tons of videos on youtube of Hillary's and Obama's speeches given at college campuses, such as the one given recently at UT. Facebook and MySpace have also served to great groups and to support their political leaders. They have created a space in which the public can express their ideas and ask questions as well. This interaction between the communities helps us to make an informed decision on the day of voting for the next presidential election.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1731879,00.html?cnn=yes

Girl Beating

Lately, I've seen new incidents of middle school girls getting into fights and being taped. After that the tapes are loaded up on popular social media outlets such as youtube. The last incident took place in Florida and the most recent one in Clarksville, Indiana. The police say that the incident was plotted by a group of girls. They took the victim near a warehouse and one of the girl's began a discussion with her until she started beating her up. The other girls present at the scene taped the beating and laughed. After this the tapes go online and they are viewed by millions of people on the Internet. I think that this is a serious issue and parents must become aware of what is going on with their teenage children. Girls have always been seen as the disciplined and not involved in cat fights. Now a days the violence on television and video games inspire not only boys to become violent but girls as well. As new influence rs we have to take into consideration of what kind of information and media we put out their because this those affect the youth and their behavior.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/19/girl.beating.ap/index.html

Overcoming Language Barriers

Chris de Wolfe, the co-founder of My space announced their launching of a Korean language site. My space representatives believe that the popular hangout language website will be a success in South Korea. The site will include a "Minilog" which is a place were the youth of South Korea can share their feeling and thoughts.On of the representatives stated "The MySpace site will be primarily in Korean, though users can easily switch the interface to another language. Information written on the personal profile pages, however, won't be automatically translated". The facebook website is also breaking barriers by incorporating a facebook in spanish. I think that breaking language barriers is a great idea, this way social media becomes more global and everybody can be a part of it. However, I think that the communication between different languages will probably be very difficult, but the whole idea is to create communication and for everybody to be part of it. Social media outlets are so important today and it is crucial for them to exist in other cultures and languages.http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/15/south.korea.myspace.ap/index.html

Facebook News Feed on Wedding Ring

On monday we talked about the new Facebook news feed that was installed during 2007. Of course it's fun to see what your friends are writing among each other and know who's friends with who now. However, it is not fun when you buy an engagement ring and all your friends including your bride to be finds out about it. This is what happened to a guy who bought the engagement ring on overstock.com and a couple of hours later his buddies were calling him to congratulate him. I think this has gone to far on the part of Facebook, their is a privacy section on the website for a reason and I think that your personal purchases should be kept private as well. In class we learned that facebook did offer an apology and some of the news feed related to online purchases were removed. I think that this is just the beginning of other intrusions of privacy coming in our direction, with new technology and websites such as facebook their is more ground for marketers and advertising agencies to reach us and know more information about our private lives. Although I am a pr and advertising major and I want to know my costumer more at the same time I want to respect their personal life and I don't want them to feel intruded by our company or product. Facebook made a mistake and apologized, but this leads me to believe that their will be more upcoming surprising news feeds.

Baghdad Burning

I am currently taking a Gender and Globalization class here at St. Edward's. One of our textbooks for the class is based on the true story of an Iraqi woman who narrates her experience during the war. The name of the book is "Baghdad Burning", the interesting thing about this book and the reason why Im relating it to this class is that the book is based on the blogs she writes daily. At the beginning many people were suspicious of her blogs because she remains anonymous and her english is perfect. Her blog name is Riverbend and only her publisher knows her true identity. In her blogs she talks about the constant struggle she is currently living in her own country. She also talks about how americans and the world have a twisted notion of how Iraq really is. In her blog she says: I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night."
This book and Riverbend's blogs have taught me that your experiences can be shared with the whole world through the internet. This woman now has a book that is talked about in colleges around the nation and the information that she wants to share with us can help change a bit of the perception that people in america have of Iraq.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Group Podcast

Our Postcast talks about the different type of podcasts that are available online. A podcast is a collection of digital media files which are distributed over the internet, often using syndication feeds, for playbacks on portable media players and computers. I think this is a great invention because you can listen to your favorite shows at your own time. Additionally, this enables you to keeps any commercials and fast forward to your favorite topics. Our duration of our Podcast is over 5 minutes, its very informative and it teaches the public about what a podcast is all about. With the addition of special sound effects we made this into a very interesting clip.

Blocking Youtube!

Pakistan has just been added to the list of countries that have blocked Youtube access. Some of these countries are Brazil, China, Iran, Morocco, Myanmar, Syria and Thailand. In Pakistan, there are people who are opposed to the banning of Youtube, and in the other hand "There are others who say that YouTube is full of videos... that are damaging to the character of children." I mean sure not all the videos on Youtube are great, but as we have learned these types of websites have become a form of social media in which people communicate. People's videos have created firecrakers and even new ideas for huge companies such as Apple.

All of the countries mentioned before have concluded that Youtube is immoral, embarrasing to well known figure, and in the case of Pakistan some videos offend Islam.

As a New Influencer and a fan of Youtube, I think that the internet and these websites are a form of self expression. Governmental policies against internet sites can't take over in this manner, this sites are a source of communication for the public, if somebody feels offended because of a particular video, than they should deal witht he specific person posting this kind of information. Nonetheless, the problem here is that the Pakistani government is depriving its people of free speech. I just know that if they would start banning internet sites in my country because of religious reasons...I would be very mad!

The New Influencers - Ch. 6

The section on Girl Power and AskPatty.com was the most interesting to me in this chapter. I had no idea that women buy more than half the new cars in the U.S. and influence 85 percent of the new auto and truck purchases. I started thinking and it kinda makes sense because when your a married man and your looking for a car you ultimately listen to your wifes and opinion and the kids sefety. Anyways, I think that this website was very innovating and smart, specially because its a site for women consumers. AskPatty.com is a place where women can log on and ask, comment, and give their liberated opinions on products they want to purchase or have purchase in the past. Additionally I think this changes the concept that many men have of women as bad drivers. The textbook says "AskPatty's blog celebrates women. Its articles not only offer advice but showcase the accomplishments of female drivers..."
Blogs like AskPatty not only establishes women as a powerful consumer, but it gives us a voice as well.

JuicyCampus.com...Back to Sixth Grade!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/18/juicy.website.ap/index.html

Oh my God!!! After reading this article I could only think REVENGE OF THE NERDS! I mean seriuosly are the people who came up with this website in sixth grade? I can't imagine who would take the time of day to create a website and start gossiping on other peoples business. I think we have enough scoop with celebrities such as Britney and ohhh Britney.
The article states that a student at Cornell University found on the juicycampus website a filthy passage about his sexual exploits. A transfer student had been humilated on the site with barely a week after arriving to the university. Supported by advertising and free to use by virtually anybody, JuicyCampus is a website destined and for the soul purpose of posting gossip. Some of the major threads include "campus hook-ups", "who's popular", "who's overweight","top ten freshman sluts" and even "the Jews ruin this school".
This shows you how technology and social networking can make you or break you. You can become popular by posting a funny video on youtube, and have your 5 minutes of fame. Or you can be talked about in a gossip website and have your reputation go down the drain. I still can't understand how people that you would expect to be intelligent and trying to learn something good in school would use their abilities in social networking to destroy other people. Freedom of Speech is a right in America, but everything has a limit and specially when you are using that right in order to harm other people.

The Internet & Our Society

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/etc/synopsis.html


After reading Frontlines article Growing Up Online, I started to think on how the internet had influenced my childhood. When I was in like six grade I began to log in to chatrooms like ICQ and MIrc to talk with my friends, later on I opened my msn account which I currently use. I think the internet has influenced our childhood not only in social networking but as a tool for gathering information for personal use or school. However, today's generation can be considered an "Internet Generation." For example my younger cousin's, they go to first and second grade and when they have their lunch break they go to the computer lab to log in and chat online or they prefer to play with their gameboys. Even my smallest cousin (11) she has a facebook account and uploads pictures of the activities they do in school. This is kind of incredible for me because I got my first digital camera when I was a junior in highschool. Technology and the internet is something revolving not only adults, but kids as well.
Additionally, there is a section in the article that talks about cyberbulling and how this is affecting young kids who are picked on not only in school but on the web as well.
Parents have to become aware of what their kids are watching and doing online, they have to become involve in all this new trends and social networks in order to know what their kids are up to.

NIU and Facebook

The shootings in NIU have left us all with a feeling of sadness and shock. I was watching the news yesterday and I heard how this girl was crying and saying how she was in the classroom where the shootings took place and had to crawl to the floor and she was just thinking that she was going to die. This really got to me, I felt fear and this is something that can happen in any university, at any time, and nobody can do something about it.
Students at NIU and around the country created a support group on Facebook where people can give the victims and their families their condolences. The group already has over 31,000 members from all over the world who are uniting to pray and support all of the victims of this sad tragedy. Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have proven to be not only a place to upload pictures from your fun weekends, but also a way in which people come together for a cause. This is a source of communication that not only connects a country, but the whole world and keeps people updated and inform of current events.
Additionally, I want to comment that Virginia Tech was a tragedy, but on a more positive note this tragedy was like a wakeup call for police enforcements and how media handles this types of problems. I think the NIU faculty and staff responded very well to this sad incident, police arrived rapidly, and the conferences given where organized and with detail information to the public.

Facebook Rocks the Vote

Facebook did it again folks. Rock the Vote created a facebook group in which people can join and be encourage to actually give their vote for this years presidential elections. Rock the vote always uses popular culture icons and music to get in touch with young teens, but using facebook as a social network in order to reach their target audience is genius. More than 25,000 people have joined the group already. Kat Barr, the director of Rock the Vote stated "It has huge potential for young people to get their friends to register. It's about us giving them the tools to organize it." The expectations of Rock the Vote is that this message gets across all teen facebook users. I think facebook is a great way to inform your public, and people can associate with other and even make comments on their political learders. This is a good example of how teens today are drifting more from their tv's to their laptops. It was just 4 years ago when we saw P Diddy and all those ads showing on MTV about Rock the Vote. Our lives revolve around social networking ,we can make friends, find common interests, and even debate on politics.