Companies throughout the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom are increasingly turning to social media in order to screen candidates in job competitions. In fact, the results of a recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder suggest that 45% of employers use social media as a way of finding out more about candidates for job openings and weeding out those who will not even get called in for an interview. In 2008, this figure stood at just 22%, but more than doubled in little over a year. As such, signing up for a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account is one of the most important ways of ensuring that a job application is given due consideration, and is not simply lost amidst dozens of applicants competing for the same position.</p> <p>With 45% of employers already using social media in the hiring process, an additional 11% indicated that this would become a factor within the near future. But it is not enough to simply have a Facebook or Twitter account, in order to gain an advantage when competing for jobs. A great way to stand out is to develop an area of expertise and write a blog. This can be an excellent way for university students to build an online presence before graduation and prior to searching for careers.</p> <p>These survey results, however, also show that using social media in a responsible manner is one of the best ways to leave a good first impression. As such, a blog?s content must be well-written and useful, while an applicant?s Facebook account should never include compromising photos or material. In fact, a growing number of companies ask potential employees to log into their social media accounts during interviews, in order to verify that their use of Web 2.0 technology is positive and responsible.

An important addition to Twitter may help businesses that use the micro-blogging site to stay in touch with their customers. Twitter?s developers have added a geographic feature to the site, which supplements each tweet with information on where the 140 character message was posted from. As such, football fans tweeting directly from South Africa?s Free State Stadium, in Bloemfontein, are all linked to a single page, where followers can find tweets from micro-bloggers posting from the same location. Twitter will continue adding more locations in 65 different countries throughout the week.</p> <p>Once the app is completely introduced, Twitter users will have the option of adding their precise location each time they post a tweet. Businesspeople?especially real estate agents, as well as shop and restaurant owners?will find this new option especially useful, as their business will enjoy more visibility and connectivity with clients than ever before. For example, Twitter users tweeting from prominent restaurants at any given time will be able to list their location and the micro-blogging site will create a unique page for that business.</p> <p>While there is excitement about Twitter?s new geographic tool, the past few days have hardly been smooth-sailing for the world?s largest micro-blogging site. Twitter?s service has suffered regular disruptions for over a week and developers have been unable to avoid a series of frustrating outages. The most recent disruption lasted for several hours last night and as a result, some users found that their tweets were posted in the wrong order or with duplicates this morning.

A Chinese freelance writer who spent three years in prison for publishing articles that were critical of the country?s communist regime has been transferred on bail to a hospital with a serious medical condition. According to the Epoch Times, Li Hong?s condition is critical and he remains in intensive care with a severe form of muscular dystrophy. The freelancer?s jailers had known of his condition during his three years of imprisonment, but refused to allow him to seek appropriate medical care. As such, Li now risks developing permanent paralysis. Patrick Poon, the vice president of an organization of freelance writers critical of China?s government, told the Voice of America radio service that Li may have been mistreated during his confinement and this would likely have aggravated his fragile health.</p> <p>Li?s freelance writing caught the attention of Chinese authorities in 2008, right before the Olympics in Beijing. During this time, Li published a series of articles critical of China?s human rights record, but these works landed him in prison under a charge known as the ?subversion of state power.? Although Li received a six year sentence, his failing health makes it much less likely that he will be able to serve the second half. The freelancer reportedly has difficulty talking and has been placed on a respirator.</p> <p>Li?s wife attempted to have her husband freed on bail on numerous occasions, citing his poor health in prison. Chinese authorities, however, appear to have waited until the damage to the freelancer?s condition was permanent.</p> <p>Dissident journalists in China have long praised Li?s work. The freelancer wrote articles in solidarity with the Falun Gong movement and spent time in a labour camp after the Tiananmen massacre of 1989

Twitter is the buzzword this year, as the football World Cup gets underway in South Africa, following controversial statements by Dutch player Eljero Elia. According to media reports, Elia made a derogatory and racist comment about Moroccan football players. The racial slur spread quickly in the Blogosphere and among social media users, forcing Elia to issue an apology over streaming video. The Dutch player pointed out that he grew up in a deeply multicultural part of Hague, where nearly three fourths of the population was comprised of Moroccans and others from North Africa. Elia, who is himself a minority, noted that the comments deemed racist were not meant to insult Moroccans, but simply represented friendly banter between himself and a close friend.</p> <p>Despite the apology, the incident was enough to convince Bert van Marwijk to forbid all Dutch players from posting tweets at any time during the World Cup. But the Netherlands is not the only country to take the unusual step of banning players from using Twitter. Both England and Spain have decided to impose a similar policy. All of this means that football enthusiasts and Twitter users will have to look elsewhere when it comes to obtaining first-hand information on the games. The ban is surprising to many, as participants from most countries at the Winter Olympics earlier this year in British Columbia were permitted to post tweets throughout the games, and this served as an important way of staying in touch with fans and sports enthusiasts.

The largest and most successful online publications all have something in common: they rely on a vast team of freelance writers, with a wide array of interests and professional backgrounds. The Huffington Post is now among the most widely quoted online news publications and was a particularly influential site during the 2008 American presidential elections. One of the keys to success behind entrepreneur Arianna Huffington?s brainchild is the fact that the website?s articles are produced by 6,000 freelancers, each with prior blogging experience. While there was some fear that interest in The Huffington Post would decline between American presidential elections, figures released for the month of April show that 26 million people from around the world visited and read articles posted by freelancers on the website.</p> <p>Yet Arianna Huffington?s business model is controversial to many in the field of freelancing and content writing. While most content creation companies pay freelance writers to produce articles, blog posts and even forum entries, Huffington Post uses volunteer labour and only pays a relatively small staff of 130 editors and webmasters.</p> <p>At a recent conference, Arianna Huffington tried to justify not paying freelance writers by noting that ?self-expression has become the new entertainment,? and that many are simply happy to write for free, as long as their work gets published. But ensuring that the quality of the writing meets the editor?s standards and that news pieces do not degenerate into tabloid-style articles can be a challenge, when freelancers are not rewarded for their work. Only time will tell if the Huffington Post?s business model will succeed in the long-run, but what is certain, is that freelance writers are claiming a growing chunk of online journalism.

A Canadian media giant has decided to pay freelancer writers millions of dollars, as part of a lawsuit involving the issue of copyright articles. Canwest?the top Canadian publisher of local newspapers, as well as the owner of a string of television stations?will now pay out $7.5 million to a group of freelancers, who were frustrated by the media giant?s regular use of their work and what they felt was a breach of online copyright laws. On June 16th, a judge in Ontario is expected to approve one of the biggest legal wins ever by North American freelance authors. Since Canwest entered bankruptcy protection late last year, freelancers may receive a share of the amount of money eventually divided among the troubled media giant?s creditors.</p> <p>Despite Canwest?s prominence in Canada, the company?s printed newspapers have suffered badly, especially as a growing number of young readers turn to the Internet for their news. Over the years, Canwest had to cut back on honorariums provided to freelance writers who wrote opinion pieces for the firm?s flagship newspaper, The National Post.</p> <p>According to a report in Business Week, one of the freelance writers to lead the charge against major Canadian media giants? alleged copyright infringement was Heather Robertson. As a freelancer, Robertson was angered when publishers decided to store copies of her articles in electronic databases, without obtaining her consent. The case filed by Canadian freelancer writers is now before Ontario?s Superior Court and a final ruling may set an important precedent in empowering freelance writers across the continent.

British actor and writer Stephen Fry recently launched an international competition, in which he invited his 1.5 million Twitter followers to try and post the most beautiful tweet ever written. A 41 year old Canadian physicist from Edmonton took the prize with a tweet that incorporated both high hopes for a better world, as well as a little humour. Marc MacKenzie wrote that he ?believes we can build a better world! Of course, it?ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.? This 127 character tweet was chosen as the most powerful and beautiful ever written by jurists at the Hay Festival of the Literature and the Arts, in Wales.</p> <p>Contestants had two weeks to send in their most beautiful tweets before the winner was announced. MacKenzie submitted 30 entries, each of them incorporating a little humour, alongside a more profound message. MacKenzie?s win in Britain this past Sunday has led to a meteoric rise in the number of Twitter users signed up to follow his tweets?the micro-blogging enthusiast and scientist went from just 157 before his victory, to 1647 and rising. But this is not the first time that MacKenzie puts his writing skills to the test. Just a few months ago, MacKenzie became a finalist in a freelance writing competition launched by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), entitled Canada Writes.</p> <p>MacKenzie noted that he continues to use Twitter because it gives him a venue for his writing and manages to bring a little humour each morning into the lives of his followers.

An American freelance writer found himself banned from entering Egypt, after publishing articles in which he expressed critical opinions of the country?s regime and the mistreatment of protesters. James Buck had just landed at Cairo?s airport, after arriving on a flight from Dubai. But when Egyptian passport officers inspected his travel documents, the freelancer was ordered to board the next flight back to Dubai and was not given permission to enter the country. According to Egyptian authorities, Buck had been placed on a blacklist, for ?defaming? Egypt in one the articles he published in his capacity as a freelancer.</p> <p>In 2008, Buck was among a relatively small handful of western journalists who covered industrial strikes that turned violent in the Egyptian town of Mahalla el-Kobra. In addition to writing an article on the unrest, Buck also published a series of photos, which depicted just how torn Egyptian society was over the strikes and the government?s response. Two people died in the strikes, where workers demand wage increases. But the unrest also highlight edan aspect of Egypt that most western tourists visiting Cairo and the pyramids never realize: over 20% of all adult Egyptians have less than $1 as their daily income.</p> <p>As a clear sign of the times, Buck went straight to Twitter, as he waited at the Cairo airport for a return flight to Dubai. As such, news of the freelancer?s brief detention and ordeal spread rapidly on the micro-blogging website, but it is still early to determine whether Egyptian authorities will bow to pressure from social media users and the blogosphere, in order to reverse their decision to ban Beck from entering Egypt.

Steve Coll is a well-known writer and journalist at The New Yorker, but while he works on essays and articles focusing on national security and intelligence by day, he blogs by night. In a recent essay, Coll explored the world of blogging in some detail and explained why this form of expression can be important for both freelance writers, as well as for established journalists. Coll sees blogging as a continuation of a much older tradition of letter writing and keeping diaries, which was very popular among writers, artists and intellectuals in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As such, blogs are often more authentic and genuine that articles that have been heavily edited, and they are especially valuable whenever they include a little humour, amateur photography, personal travel stories and?of course?reports on breaking news, often published well before major media organizations get around broadcasting </p>

Forbes, one of the world?s largest business news magazines, has turned to content writers in order to give its online presence a more dynamic and original feel than ever before. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Forbes is preparing to purchase a website entitled True/Slant, which brings together more than 300 freelancers and content writers to provide original news-related articles. Established a year ago, True/Slant?s goal was to both offer fledgling freelance writers an opportunity to establish themselves in the world of online content production, while also providing more diverse views in news-related articles. A small number of True/Slant?s content writers had worked for major print organizations, like Newsweek and Rolling Stone, but many more were freelancers seeking publishing experience.</p> <p>Lewis Dvrokin established True/Slant and one of his goals was to show how individual content writers and freelancers could not only become reputable journalists, but also successful entrepreneurs. As such, each freelancer earned bonuses by attracting readers to their articles. The website, in turn, placed advertisements on each page, but also permitted companies to set up their own ad pages on the site, in order to increase their exposure. As such, the divide between the journalist or editor, and the advertiser that exists in nearly all traditional publications was broken down. Dvorkin believes that turning freelancers and editors into entrepreneurs is the way of the future in the media world.</p> <p>If Forbes adopts this business model following the merger, a traditional news organization established in 1917 will go through a major transformation and content writers will be at the centre of this change.