A group of Nust (Zimbabwe) Journalism students make it big with Telecel's Telecash

A group of National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Journalism students shined when they organised a very successful two day Public Relations campaign with Telecel. The campaign was held at the University's premises on the 19th and 20th of March, attracting a gigantic crowd of students as they were seen gathering around the temporary Telecel booth.

The student forerunners of the campaign were Mbongeni Zondo, Nastasjia Gwenzi, Patience Magora, Tapiwa Muzondo and Thembi Zulu. With Telecel coming with only their telecash agents, temporary booth and Telecel sim cards, the students extended their efforts and managed to register about sixty nine Telecel users for telecash. Many students and lecturers also purchased sim cards and registered with Telecel on those two days.

Using their Public Relations skills, the students also interviewed participants asking them about the problems they face with Telecel. The responses were submitted to the Bulawayo Main Branch Telecel Manager, Mr Chipangamate, with the hope of seeing improvements on the complaints soon.

Telecash is a mobile transfer service, which allows subscribers to use mobile phones to send money to anyone on any network, pay bills and and pay for groceries and other goods and services.

Registration and transaction is easy. To transact a registered telecash subscriber simply dial *888#, which will result in the menu appearing on the mobile phone screen, from which the type of transaction required can be selected.

The *888# number can be used to, among other things, purchase prepaid airtime for oneself and other Telecel subscribers, pay bills, pay for goods and services, check one's telecash account balance, check one's transactions and change one's pin.

Subscibers can register for telecash at any Telecel office, with selected telecash agents or with telecash ambassadors, who will be found roaming the streets for the convenience of customers wishing to sign on.

All that is needed for one to register is one's identity card, driver's license or passport and a copy of it. Registration is fast, almost instant.

Latest on the disappeared Malsysian Flight MH370

The Chinese never cease to amaze anyone with their extra-ordinary minds that are always looking for solutions to everything. According to the Toronto sun, the Chinese have spotted a new object in the southern Indian Ocean, which they suspect it could be the remains of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

According to the Toronto sun, a satelite image was taken on March 18, 2014 by the Gaofen-1-high resolution optical Earth observation satelite China National Space Administration (CNSA).

An Australian Journalist said that China announced they have discovered a new satelite image, which they suspect could be a wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner. More palnes and ships have headed towards the direction of the object to join an international search operation.

We might thank China if the wreckages of the plane are found, but it is very unfortunate that China's subnormal technological advancement has come in too late for the lost 239 souls.

Technological institutions world wide should now start working on making new technologies, that will rather help to detect the fault before it happens or before any souls are lost. This particularly goes to flight engineers who should work on developing a better tracking system for all the flying objects that are used to carry people.

My condolences go to those who lost their loved ones in that mysteriously disappeared Malaysian plane.

Technology is an idol: Parents worry over technology use

 

Many would certainly agree that they wouldn't survive if their phones had to be taken away from them for just 24 hours. Technological devices can be likened to very addictive drugs especially to the youths of the 21st Century. Parents really do have reasons to worry about the effects of technological devices on their children.

As defined in the Wikipedia, technology is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a pre-existing solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, including machinery, modifications, arrangements and procedures.

A technological device  is anything that uses the most recent technological information. A screw driver at one time was a technological device. A technological device can be anything from a can-opener to more complex devices like computers.

Some of the common technological devices

The common technological devices include mobile phones, computers, pads, game consoles  and many others. These technological devices enable people to interact, invent, improve and to do many other things. In our days, technological devices have made youths to feel incomplete when they don't access them for just a short period of time. One can safely say that they have become a god to youths, and even adults as they spend most of their time using them.

It is for this reason that most parents worry about the effects of technologies on their children. Youths now spend most of their time using these technologies and barely have time to chat with their parents, brothers and their sisters at home. In short, these technologies have almost taken over family time.

Educational psychologist Dr Kairen Cullen said: "Modern technology is part of contemporary life and naturally this is reflected in the way families operate. However, it is becoming clear that a number of children and young people use technology excessively.

"Parents now have to adapt to a different climate of communication and work hard to ensure open and meaningful conversations with their children, who have grown up with instant messaging and social media.

"Virtual communication is never going to substitute face-to-face family contact though, and parents are well placed to encourage sensible and balanced use of online facilities in a way that includes time fully offline and supports family dynamics."

It can thus be seen that technological devices are highly addictive, and when not monitored in terms of their use, they can destroy the face to face social life of a person.

Mark Zuckerberg purchases whatsapp for $19 billion: is this a question of money or his personal insecurities?

Mark Zuckerberg-the founder of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the famous social network site Facebook, has purchased WhatsApp; an instant messaging application for smartphones, for $19 billion. Analysts have though argued that the decisive act by Zuckerberg to purchase WhatsApp for such an amount of money, was more of business in-oriented and economically insane, but rather pushed by his personal vendettas against his major opponents.

"The purchase must also be viewed in the context of the high-stakes battle being waged between Zuckerberg and Larry Page, his opposite number at Google, for the prize of users and their eyeballs, across which lucrative streams of advertising can be delivered," the Guardian said on their website. 

People should note that it was not the first time for the young Facebook fella to offer such amounts of monies to other operators in his field, whom he reckoned where/and some still are his enemies in a business sense.

According to the guardian, facebook picked up Instagram, the photo-sharing app, in 2012 for $1bn, a price that dropped jaws at the time yet now seems like a steal, and attempted to buy Snapchat, the tiny self-destructing photo-messaging app popular among younger users, for $3bn.

It is quite clear that Zuckerberg is more of an emotionally and yet financially driven, or should I say he is one awkward fella who wouldn't think twice about selling his own mother just to outrun his fellow business opponents. Hey Mark, its just business man...and you are already stinking rich anyway!

Facebook has faced stiff  competitions from various social networking sites which include Line, WeChat and Snap chat. Besides these rivals, Zuckerberg has clearly felt the most pain coming from the contagiously growing instant messaging application which is WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp is adding about a million users per day, Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on his page on Wednesday.

According to the guardian, Zuckerberg has promised to leave his new subsidiary be – for now. "He made it very clear that they are committed to not make changes to the user experience by introducing ads," Jan Koum (WhatsApp's Chief Executive) told the Wall Street Journal. "He positioned it more as WhatsApp will stay completely independent and autonomous."

South African television channel (eTV) staffers are highly unprofessional!

Many will certainly agree with me when I say that some of eTV's staffers are highly unprofessional. This takes particular reference to some of the eTV news presenters, who rather choose not to follow media journalistic principles and ethics. I'm not really sure if the staffers or the management team is to blame.

It was a pain to me when I watched the Tuesday 18 February (1900hrs) eTV news and sadly came across a news reporter who reported about two Zimbabwean illegal miners who died in a mine trap near Benoni at South Africa. I believe all human beings who have healthy and functional minds have feelings, not to talk about those reporters who are even trained to have that in their minds.

"They have finally paid the 'ultimate price' of mining illegally." That is what the female journalist said when she commented on the sad incident. Yet the journalistic principles say that practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience, and that includes using your rational mind as a human being to present issues fairly.

It was a big shame and a very painful moment for me when someone decided to be overconfident on a national television station, and demonstrate to the whole of South Africa that death is less serious or painful when it befalls foreigners. Like that was enough, it did not take a blind man and the dumbest fool to see the smile that was on her face when she presented the sad news. One could swear she is the devil that the Holy Bible tells us about.

A properly trained journalist should know better. Journalistic principles say that practitioners should keep the news comprehensive and in proportion, and that doesn't say 'misrepresent' certain groups in society! I could even swear this so called eTV 'reporter' has never ran across a phrase that spells 'N-U-E-T-R-A-L L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E! Quite awkward when you are in the Journalism field.

Just a big shout out to the poor eTV Reporter: "YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO JOURNALISM!"

Bulawayo (ZBC) Montrose Studios can be easily turned into a Museum!

"The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's equipment is still in the 1960s," -David Coltart.

One would certainly agree with me when I say that the Bulawayo (ZBC) Montrose Studios can be easily turned into a Museum. Actually, I on a real experience thought the studio was a Museum when I went on a University tour some two years back. I would say it really felt like the era of the Smith Regime, even though I was never there in Smith's era.

I was even more, or should I say 'extremely' disappointed...or rather flabbergasted to see that the ZBC Pockets Hill station (The main station) in Harare was also in the same condition. Both the Radio and Television broadcast equipment were so old that I, on some instances thought the old monitors were some pieces of art-work stamped on the wall. I would just excuse the Television broadcast equipment which was some-what better, though I can say that it is still not up to standard as I can still see spider webs when I switch on to ZBC TV at home.

"You just have to spend 2 minutes in the foyer to see that it is more like a museum than a broadcasting studio – it literally is a cast back to the 1970s, in fact possibly even the 1960s, because the Rhodesian Front regime was subjected to sanctions itself and so did not have up to date equipment," read some comments on the Herald newspaper.

I have always and I still believe that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is a public company which is funded and serviced by the licenses and taxes that we (the citizens) pay. Where then do our monies go since there seems to be no improvement at all on all the ZBC stations I have visited. I would even assume that the new equipment that was installed at Pockets Hill was out of pity donated by the Chinese,,,'donated' not bought. 

I just wonder if the equipment is ever going to improve at all ZBC stations even though I sincerely doubt. What makes me doubt even more is the rumor that the Bulawayo and Gweru ZBC stations will soon be relocated to Harare. I would suggest that they turn those two stations into Museums,,,they NEVER had hope anyway.

So whilst I welcome the move to transform ZBC’s equipment from analogue to digital, until we have an equally digital transformation of its mindset and ethic, it will remain a moribund Stalinist institution which will continue to retard Zimbabwe’s development and transformation into a vibrant, democratic Nation. – David Coltart

WE SHALL SEE!!!
 

Better call it the Harare Broadcasting Corporation (HBC).

YES, there is a dark side to studios! "Its better to call it the Harare Broadcasting corporation (HBC) than to call it the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)," commented one person on the Radio Dialogue website. ZBC will soon be closing the Bulawayo and Gweru studios as the company is said to be looking for measures to restructure its expenditure.

As the issue is addressed on Newsday (a Zimbabwean Newspaper), sources close to the corporation disclosed that they had been alerted by the management that the station was being relocated to Harare. I wonder what is going to happen to hundreds of employees that were employed in these two stations; though in a far and very obvious view, one can see that many are going to be left jobless and suffering as the Corporation was a public service company that provided an economic hideout for many.

As said in Newsday, when the Zimbabwean Minister of Information and Publicity was contacted over the issue, he neither denied nor confirmed to the impending restructuring exercise.

The dark side of the matter: Why then is the studio being relocated to Harare, and not Bulawayo or Gweru? Remember, ZBC has been on various times and on various publications attacked for being monopolistic. One may then wonder why it has to be relocated to Harare and not Bulawayo or Gweru...or perhaps so that they (the elite) can then advance to RADICAL MONOPOLISM, if there is such a thing?

On the other hand, Newsday said that "Dube's board was unceremoniously booted out last November for awarding high salaries that bordered on illegality to the ZBC executives while junior staffers went unpaid for half a year."

The question still remains: Do they have to relocate the Bulawayo and Gweru ZBC stations to Harare in order to restructure the company's expenditure, and WHY???

     

Prominant SA Dj Cleo accused of molesting artists

"Dj Cleo is gay"-Brickz, as headlined in the newzimbabwe.com website. A review to the issue of two singers namely Brickz and Mavo, who reavealed to a South African Sunday tabloid that Dj cleo used to "spank and caress them." Mavo went on to add that Dj Cleo would slump into a "feminine sulk" if he saw his artists with their girlfriends. One may wonder then, could this be true???

Apparently, Dj Cleo when approached about the matter dismissed the interviewer saying that he had serious business to attend to. Again when Dj Cleo was challenged on the allegations, he refused to address the central allegations, or his "private life" as he put it.

I wonder if he still spanks and caresses his current artists, or he could have as well taken the allegations as a warning or as an opportunity to come out clean. In my own opinion though, i sincerely doubt that Dj cleo is gay. Considering that he is a prominent and well respected SA Music producer, i believe he had, or still has the required confidence to come out clean and say it to the world, without having crippled his carrier, AND THAT IS IF he is gay!

"Dj Cleo is plain gay, and the sooner he accepts that the better," said Brickz.

IS DJ CLEO GAY??? The question remains...???

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog, and yes its real! Here we discuss issues or rather unrevealed matters that take place in Studios. Personal vendettas, blackmail, and the over exhaustion of Talents by Producers are some of the crucial matters that have been left unsaid by the media. Meet Dr-Bre who will be the main force towards the exposure of such matters world wide. Ciao