Join the new world

It's been an incredibly crazy week here in eAustralia, and I believe given the media coverage there is little point me retelling the events. But amongst presidential resignations, senate tomfoolery, airstrikes and carve-ups, the Department of Education and Entertainment will continue to do its absolute best to keep our community active, content and well-informed. Here's a little list of articles if you've been confused by this week's proceedings:

Failure of Senate to impeach retired President CyberCasper
Tim Holtz and his new cabinet
Agreement between FYROM-Chile-Indonesia on their occupation of Australia
Details on the National Shield competition



Australia's Next Top Journalist



"As far as I'm concerned, it's a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity." - Hunter S. Thompson

Since I first joined this game about five and half years ago (on another account) the thing that strangely enticed me most was the media module. I've always loved writing, and I was brought up by a freelance journalist and a book wholesaler, so a love of literature and journalism was imbued in me from a young age. eRepublik itself was (and is) big and confusing, full of actions one can barely understand the scope of at times, and it's the media module that gives the clearest insight into these goings on, in my opinion. With the abundance of information available on the wars, alliances, political takeovers and feuds around the New World, one can weave a beautiful narrative out of something entirely fictitious and seemingly meaningless. A little segment of a virtual map changing from green to red can signify the efforts of thousands of individual players, coordinating with each other to strike at precisely the right time and bring about the fall or survival of an empire. The ramifications of such small events echo through every level of the game, and it seems impossible to piece them together sometimes. That is the job of an eJournalist - to gather together all these colour changes and country rankings and percentages and off-site agreements, and turn them into a cohesive narrative of an event.



Thus, it gives me great honour to announce the first eAustralian Journalism Competition! This has been attempted in the past, with little success, but I want to give it another go. Hopefully this attempt can lead to a greater monthly competition, where based on the monthly oeuvre of a player eAustralia's wisest and brightest decide upon the eAustralian Journalist of the Month, a Pulitzer Prize for our aspiring men of letters. In the meantime, I will be running a smaller version of the competition to see how interested people are. The rules are as follows:

- Anyone can enter up to one article of their own that has been published in the last seven days or the next seven days.
- Players can also be nominated for the award by another player, again who must nominate a singular article (multiple nominations for an article will be taken into consideration upon judging).
- Articles must be at least 400 words in length and cover an entertaining and informative eRepublik topic - one cannot simply publish an article about how much they like cats, or five photos of cats.
- Articles may be opinionated or neutral - how well you defend your argument will be taken into consideration upon judging (you can't assert an opinion without clear evidence).
- Entries will not be accepted after Day 2319 unless specified otherwise, and results will be announced within a few days of the deadline.
- Entries will be judged by myself and James Rellori (input from others will be considered and in the future a fairer judging system will be used) on the criteria:
Accuracy of information - are the contents of your article correct, current and well-cited?
Research undertaken - does your article show evidence of effort beyond its writing?
Entertainment value - how interesting are the topics covered and how well are they presented?
Quality of expression- how well do you write?
Presentation - is your article's layout and format aesthetically pleasing and practical?

There will be two categories for entries, based on experience in the eAustralian community. Since levels and birthdates are often inaccurate representations of player experience, the Young Journalist Award will be awarded to players with less than two months experience in any government position (Senate or Cabinet) and the Established Journalist Award to players with more than two months experience in any government position, whether that be in eAustralia or another country.

At the moment prizes are sitting at 15 gold for the youth category and 10 gold for the experienced category (you elders don't need the gold as much) but I am looking for anyone with a few gold to spare to please contribute! I will be posting articles reminding people of this competition as regularly as possible, as I want to see as many entries as possible in the next few weeks. Spread the word, because I really hope for this competition to become a staple of the eAustralian DoEE and encourage young players to take up their pen.

Writers block? Here's a couple of suggestions:
- Interview a veteran eAustralian or other eRepublik player on their experience
- Research the origins and outcomes of a present or past war
- Report on a political crisis, domestic or overseas (the eUK's having themselves a nice PTO attempt at the moment)
- Profile an allied or enemy country to give our citizens a greater understanding of the New World
- Express your opinion on a recent political or military decision
- Detail some economic tips and guidelines

To enter yourself or another person, comment below with a link to the article in question, or send the Aus Ministry of Culture organisation a PM with your details.



A quick update on the other actions of the Department of Education and Entertainment. We're still going through the new player library and updating the information there, so stay tuned for an official announcement upon its completion. May I remind every player, young or old, that the 'Ask Your Cabinet' board is still very much alive and open to questions and concerns from anyone who cares to voice them.

And listen here, don't forget to Just DoEEt!

Minister of Entertainment and Education: James Rellori
Deputy of Entertainment and Education: Marjoo Umbri













Please subscribe to the Government Department Newspapers, Join the eAustralian Forums, and take a look at our National Library run by the Department of Human Services to aid our New Players.