YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND MY EXPERIENCES WORKING WITH A GROUP ON A CAMPAIGN

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

WHAT IS IT?

Youth unemployment refers to the share of labor force ages 15-24 without work but available for and seeking employment. There are many reasons why youth unemployment is available or present in the world, but it is high and low in some countries and there are also measures to eradicate it.


                 Youth unemployment rate by ages

REASONS OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

Youth unemployment is a global issue, with varying levels of undesirable conditions across countries. Unemployment is often categorized under particular groups such as; ethnic minorities, high school dropouts, and individuals of poorer areas. These individuals definitely lack experience and this might or be the major reason behind youth unemployment. The unbelievable fact is that youth unemployment is considerably higher than unemployment among adults and it has being like this throughout the last two decades, and the reason for this is that youths usually have lower job protection. The skill mismatch issue is another reason or cause of youth unemployment and it is particularly important in the developing world.

DEFINITION OF A CAMPAIGN AND ITS PROCESS

A campaign was created about youth unemployment which was one of our semester task for Professional Practice course. In addition, I would like to briefly define what is a campaign for better understanding of this blog. A campaign is any series of actions or events that are meant to achieve a particular result, for example, an advertising campaign of television commercials. The campaign task was given to groups with five to seven members in each group. The main aim of this campaign was to recruit young individuals who are unemployed and looking for an opportunity to make a difference within their community. My group and I organised a campaign in order to create more awareness in local communities and in areas such as shopping malls and more importantly busy areas. We visited the Alexander township and did our best to create awareness about youth unemployment. A Facebook page and a special event was specifically created for this campaign in order to encourage stakeholders engagement. These stakeholders are the individuals that will help to eradicate this issue of youth unemployment by providing learnership programs for dropout youths and the less privileged ones.

For the duration of this campaign and working with my fellow classmates has improved my Public Relations skills in many aspects such as writing, media engagement, client or stakeholder relationship management, campaign development and strategy. In terms of the above mentioned Public Relations skills, my writing techniques for media releases and pitch letters for example has improved to the next level wherein I am more comfortable with the layout and choosing the right organization for delivery. 

In order to understand the process of media engagement, client or stakeholder relationship management and campaign development, an individual must know and have knowledge of how each process works. During the campaign, working with my group also helped a lot to develop my teamwork spirit and gained more understanding about Public Relations activities. Media engagement expects an individual to know the various media platforms, when to use them effectively and how they work. During the campaign, it was obligatory that we use Facebook to create awareness of youth unemployment. In the process of creating this page, I learnt new things such as how to create a page for advertising purposes. Dealing with client or stakeholder relationship management, it is very important to know your stakeholder individually by name but not in general. It is also vital to know their needs and how to attract them. Campaign development entails a lot such as, knowing your target market, choosing the right platform for your messages to your target market and also there must be aim and objectives for your campaign. The last aspect is strategy, and this entails the overall planning of an activity and in this situation, it involves having ideas and how to plan for a campaign. The step by step process involved is necessary in order to carry out a successful campaign.  

DO WE STILL NEED JOURNALISTS IN THIS AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media channels used by journalists

THE NEED OF JOURNALISTS IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In order to provide an answer to the above question, weed to know the meaning of the two important terms in the question, which are "journalist" and "social media". In comparing and differentiating these two terms, we will surely obtain an answer to the above question.
A journalist is a reporter who professionally does living reporting on news and current events. He collects, writes and distributes news or information through the newspaper, television and radio. Journalists reports the way the news has been obtained without giving any judgments or opinions of their own. He or she is also a keeper of a person's journal and writes in it regularly. Journalist is one whose occupation originally requires only writing in the printed press, but now that we are living in this new age of social media, I think they need to renew their forms of reporting news and this new form can be through the use of the social media as their platform. The types of journalists is also increasing in numbers to fit into this new age of social media.

Social media, a means of reaching out to the world.

Why you can not ignore social media?

Social media has been used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online and still remains the same. Social media is also refer to as the new alternative media. In this new age, social media can give information or news at the speed of light. Examples of social media channels are blogs, podcasts and wikis.
In my own opinion, I think we still do need journalists in this age of social media because they are the ones who obtain the news professionally and delivered them to the public. News of today on most social media channels are being published by journalists. Although the different social media does provide reports on news, but there is a difference between the journalist and social media. Journalists are physically present where the news is taking place and the social media are not, but it is the journalist that captures the pictures and videos of the news where necessary and distribute it to the social media channels. Thus, the pictures can be published in a printed press or through social media whilst the videos can only be published on the social media channels.

 

New media versus traditional or old media.

The other reason is simply because social media is the new digital media age which is based on the interaction of people from different races online. Since journalists are only required to do their writing in the printed press, in this situation, interaction is limited. Whilst if the journalist presents his or her writing in the social media, there is more room for interaction and in return, the journalist gets feed backs in the speed of light. In the case wherein one of the example of a social media is a blog, has been referred to as an online journal and can take different formats such as, videos, texts or photo blogging. Journalists can therefore utilise blog as one of their main platform to present information. It is therefore clear that journalists are definitely needed in this age of social media because there is a lot of opportunities for them to make their job less complicated. Different types of social media are being introduced at least once in a year and therefore provide the platform for journalists to publish their news and at the same time reaching a higher population of readers. Whether they decided to publish their news in a video, text or photo blogging format, readers will be able to leave their comments immediately and in return, the journalist will be able to analyse each readers' opinion which leads to the creating of interaction among the two.

Global penetration of social platform by age groups.

 I am convinced that journalists are definitely needed in this age of social media because if you take a look at the graph above illustrating the growth of social media network users, it is clear that the social media thus provide a huge opportunity for journalists to publish their stories and at the same time reaching different people. 

Journalism and social media.

   
My question, is do you agree as a reader that journalists are still needed in the age of social media?

THE EBOLA CRISIS

                           KNOW ABOUT EBOLA

The Ebola virus.

The Ebola virus first emerged in Sudan and Zaire in 1976 of which Zaire is currently known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, which is an often fatal illness in humans. The virus has now spread across different countries killing thousands of people. Countries such as Sudan, Cote d' Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. After two years, the virus emerges again in 2014 in the following West African countries; Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It started in Liberia and spread into Guinea, Sierra Leone and other countries including the United States Of America, killing few people. This various is said to be found in monkeys and bats which are referred to as bush meats. The above West African countries consider these bush meats as food, and I think this is one of the reason why the virus emerges every two or three years in the above countries. 

2014 Ebola outbreak.

The highest death rate occurs in the three countries above, which are Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. All of these three countries are neighbouring countries and the security policies in monitoring the movement of people in these countries is poorly set up and thus increased the fatality rate for 2014. The fatality rate cases varied from 25% to 90% in the past outbreaks which shows that people still lack the control mechanism behind this deadly virus. Last year 2014 ebola outbreak has also been recorded as the worst cases ever for this virus. The symptoms of this virus includes, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function. It can also result to internal and external bleeding.

Preventive measures against Ebola

When you are infected by this deadly virus, there is only 10% chance of survival. So far, the death rate is reducing gradually and the reason is because of the involvement of expert nurses and doctors from the United States Of America but they are stilll trying to figure out the root cause of the virus and how to completely destroy it. The above mentioned reason also tells us that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are underdeveloped countries.They lack proper health service care and security policies which did not help in fighting against this deadly virus called Ebola. The mentality of the people also played a part in fighting this virus. There are certain precautions that need to be followed by the various citizens of these infected countries in order to eliminates the virus, such as, an infected person must be isolated until he or she is properly taken care of by an expert nurse or doctor and to avoid eating bush meats which are bats and monkeys. The above image also illustrates the preventive measures used by the doctors and citizens that were not infected to prevent themselves or by using the hashtag 

Ebola virus alert.

#Ebola virus alert to create awareness. Another precaution is community engagement which is the key in controlling the outbreak successfully. An excellent control of the outbreak relies on applying the various interventions, such as, case management, surveillance and contact tracing. A safe burial and a good laboratory service is also vital in controlling this deadly virus. It is evident in the infected countries, that people are been reluctant in obeying the precautions against this virus that is the reason for the increased number of deaths in 2014 as illustrated in the diagram below.

An illustration of  Ebola outbreak from 1976 to 2014.

     know about ebola 

My question is, what mechanisms do you think needs to be in place in order to eradicate this deadly virus called Ebola?