technology

If you plan to work in the media industries and want to research the market, you have to understand that you need to be skilled and experienced. The sector's skills involve learning about the web and its interactive content. We are all international students here, but if there is one common language that we speak, it has to be the web language.

Don't agree? Look how much time we spend online- and that's including the time we spend on the many social networks. We are constantly online taking pictures or filming and uploading our creative work on the web. We have become skilled in the filming and photography industries. We design blogs on multiple platforms. We've all got production skills and creative talent owing to the Internet. But is that a good thing?

I have got to be critical of the web.

Firstly, the Internet has given us common skills that will make it hard for us to market ourselves when wanting to apply for a work position. Also look at the amount of time we spend on the web. Facebook won't give us our educational degree for posting statuses online. Londoners are also addicted to Twitter and spend countless hours on the social networks even during university times.

The digital revolution has led to many societal and cultural changes. Nowadays people tend to use electronic technologies anywhere and anytime. University students take notes on their laptops and on their iPads or tablets, they do research on the web library because the internet is a huge database without limitations, and also a time saver.

More and more websites are opening free online classes called MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), which attract students massively. With web sites offering students the possibility to learn online, their popularity questions the future of higher education. Is this the future of higher education?

The Benefits of Online Courses

Every semester students have to register for their modules, hence everyone goes through the module descriptions and requirements to choose subjects of their interest. No one wants to pay for a module that won't interest them much, as they won't put much effort into it.

The universal declaration of human rights was written in 1948; yet after more than sixty years there are countries where basic rights are denied. Freedom of speech is one of the most important evaluation criteria of a democracy: the more freedom of speech is allowed, the more a democracy is valid.

Saudi Arabia's regime, which profusely distances itself from the idea of democracy, is very keen on censoring: in 2005 it blocked Blogger, Google’s popular weblog tool; in 2010 it banned the use of Blackberry and temporarily blocked Facebook. Social networks are the latest target; the Saudi Arabian authorities have recently warned of blocking Twitter (defined a forum for unjust, incorrect communication) Skype, and applications such as WhatsApp and Viber.

As pointed out in a survey by the Opennet website, the attempt of censoring disturbing contents such as pornography seems to be an excuse to censor whatever the Saudi Arabia regime does not fancy:

Last year it was PSY's ‘Gangnam Style'. Now Baauer's ‘Harlem Shake' has gone viral. Since February 2013, we've all heard it played somewhere. The raucous composition had its rather bewildering fifteen-minutes-of-fame earlier this year, and appears still to be basking in the afterglow of Internet Celebrity for the many meme-architects who have refused to move onto the next ‘big fad'.

Not claiming to be any musical authority myself, I set out (like so many before me) to un-shroud the ambiguity surrounding the Harlem Shake. Released in early 2012, the song didn't actually receive any notable degree of worldwide acclaim until early 2013, when the recognizable videos featuring large groups of enthusiastic, vigorous dancers began to appear on Youtube. The Harlem Shake itself has become a widespread internet meme, almost irrelevant to the song itself. However, in some circles, it has been viewed in more serious eyes, under the technical microscope of music producers whose receptions of the whimsical tune have been mixed.

Chances are you've got some free time at the moment over the university holidays. And what is the best way to spend spare time? By watching YouTube videos of course. Here we've gathered together some of the very best Christmassy videos the internet has to offer. Sit back and enjoy.

A Very Modern Nativity

Ever wondered how the Nativity story would play out in today's world of social media, mobile phones, emails and Amazon? Well wonder no more, as the charming video below shows you just that.