MTV Taps 51 State-Based Citizen Journalists for 'Choose or Lose '08'

AP Online Video Network & Top Mobile Carriers to Distribute Weekly "Street

Team '08" Reports

Knight Foundation Grant Helps Power Mobile Media Election Coverage

Experiment

    NEW YORK, Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV, as part of its Emmy-winning
 "Choose or Lose" campaign (www.ChooseorLose.com), today unveiled "Street
 Team '08": a specially recruited group of 51 citizen journalists -- one
 from every state and Washington, D.C. -- who will cover the 2008 elections
 from a youth perspective and tailor their reports for mobile devices. The
 members will contribute weekly, multi-media reports (short form videos,
 blogs, animation, photos, podcasts) that will be distributed via a
 soon-to-launch WAP site, MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and to the more than
 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network. Carefully
 selected by MTV after an extensive nationwide search, the one-of-a-kind
 press corps will be armed with mobile media like laptops, video cameras and
 cell phones, and charged with uncovering the untold political stories that
 matter most to young people in their respective states.
 
     "Street Team '08" members represent every aspect of today's youth
 audience -- from seasoned student newspaper journalists to documentary
 filmmakers, the children of once-illegal immigrants to community
 organizers. They are conservative, liberal, from big cities and small
 towns. The tie that binds them all is a passion for politics and a yearning
 to amplify the youth voice during this pivotal election. All of the "Street
 Team '08" correspondents will begin reporting early next month, after an
 intensive MTV News orientation in New York City.
 
     "Recent MTV research shows young people believe their generation will
 be a major force in determining who is elected in the upcoming local and
 national elections," said Ian Rowe, VP of Public Affairs and Strategic
 Partnership, MTV, "and Street Team '08 will be a key way for our audience
 to connect with peers, as well as get informed and engaged on the local and
 political issues that matter to them most. We're proud to join with the
 Knight Foundation on this innovative experiment -- which will also explore
 how coverage of youth- centric election issues can be an effective pathway
 to increased youth voter turnout and greater political and civic
 engagement."
 
     The "Street Team '08" program is made possible by a $700,000 Knight
 News Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The
 Knight News Challenge, at www.newschallenge.org, is an annual worldwide
 competition awarding $5 million for innovative ideas that use digital media
 to inform and inspire communities. The Knight Foundation plans to invest at
 least $25 million over five years in the search for bold community news
 experiments.
 
     "We hope to find out whether or not our most important political event
 -- the election of a president -- matters to young people, and whether or
 not if matters more when it comes to them through the lens of their issues
 and the screen of their cell phone," said Eric Newton, VP/Journalism,
 Knight Foundation. "We also hope to find out what important youth issues
 are being overlooked by traditional media as the Street Team coverage goes
 beyond the presidential horse race."
 
     In addition to laptops and video cameras, each "Street Team" member
 will be equipped with best-in-breed tools that will aid in their reporting.
 Adobe Systems Incorporated is the exclusive software partner for the
 program, and as part of its Adobe Youth Voices global philanthropy program
 fostering youth self-expression, the company is outfitting each "Street
 Team" member with a copy of the Adobe(R) Creative Suite(R) 3 Production
 Premium package -- a complete post-production solution, integrating Adobe's
 all-new video, audio and design tools. PNY Technologies, a leading supplier
 of memory modules, flash media, USB drives, graphic cards and other
 peripherals, and the official flash memory provider of MTV's "Street Team
 '08," is donating high-end SD cards and USB flash drives for all of the
 correspondents.
 
     A collaboration with the Associated Press will bring select "Street
 Team '08" reports to AP's Online Video Network, which encompasses more than
 1,800 media sites with an aggregate reach of 61 million unique visitors.
 "AP is constantly adding to its already comprehensive coverage of the 2008
 political campaign and this collaborative project fits in with our goal of
 providing an even wider range of multimedia content," said Executive
 Producer for Online Video Kevin Roach.
 
     All 51 of the "Street Team" members have active profiles on
 Think.MTV.com -- MTV's online community where young people, their friends
 and some of the biggest names in pop culture come together to bring about
 positive social change. The Think community, a dedicated WAP site, video
 services from the industry-leading carriers in the MTV Mobile family and
 the Associated Press' Online Video Network will be the primary platforms
 for the correspondents' reports. Select stories will also be showcased on
 other MTV platforms, including MTV, broadcast to 88 million subscribers
 domestically, MTV2, mtvU and MTV Tr3s.
 
     The Think Community (Think.MTV.com) is dynamic, multimedia-driven and
 enables youth to easily learn more about the issues that matter to them
 most, share their opinions -- via uploaded online videos, podcasts and
 blogs -- and connect with others to make a difference. The site is one of
 the only to reward members for positive actions taken online or off,
 serving up chances to hang out with socially conscious celebs, access to
 exclusive MTV events, exposure on MTV and other national media outlets, as
 well as grants, scholarships and more. Think.MTV.com was built with the
 help of financial support and expertise from founding partners the Case
 Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Goldhirsh Foundation and MCJ
 Amelior Foundation. For more information or to build a profile and become
 involved, visit Think.MTV.com.
 
 

     The 51 "MTV Choose or Lose Street Team '08" citizen journalists are:
 
     State First Name Last Name  Homepage
 
     AK    Dani       Carlson     http://think.mtv.com/alaskadani/
     AL    David      Whiteside   http://think.mtv.com/David_Whiteside/
     AR    Patrick    Kennedy     http://think.mtv.com/PatrickKennedy/
     AZ    Nicole     Fagin       http://think.mtv.com/nicolefagin/
     CA    Carl       Brown       http://think.mtv.com/CorduroyNews/
     CO    Trevor     Martin      http://think.mtv.com/Trevino180/
     CT    Megan      Budnick     http://think.mtv.com/MeganMinus/
     DC    Erica      Anderson    http://think.mtv.com/EricaAmerica/
     DE    Stephanie  Woods       http://think.mtv.com/StrongAllAlongStephanie/
     FL    Anthony    Wojtkowiak  http://think.mtv.com/mediaforchange/
     GA    Shelby     Highsmith   http://think.mtv.com/shelbinator/
     HI    Angela     Wood        http://think.mtv.com/angelawood/
     IA    Nathan     Stienstra   http://think.mtv.com/NathanLeigh/
     ID    Brian      Rich        http://think.mtv.com/BrianTRich/
     IL    Jacqueline Ingles      http://think.mtv.com/Jingles/
     IN    Whitney    Allen       http://think.mtv.com/whallen/
     KS    Alex       Parker      http://think.mtv.com/AlexParker/
     KY    Lauren     Snowden     http://think.mtv.com/blueinthebluegrass/
     LA    Phillip    Rollins     http://think.mtv.com/prollins/
     MA    Kyle       de Beausset http://think.mtv.com/kyledeb_Think/
     MD    Kristen    Teraila     http://think.mtv.com/Kristen_Think/
     ME    Jaime      McLeod      http://think.mtv.com/jmcleod76/
     MI    Nadir      Omowale     http://think.mtv.com/Nadir/
     MN    Carissa    Jackson     http://think.mtv.com/CarissaJ/
     MO    Steven     Smith       http://think.mtv.com/theroyale/
     MS    Haley      Crum        http://think.mtv.com/hacrum/
     MT    K'Lynn     Sloan       http://think.mtv.com/KLynn_MT/
     NC    Carla      Babb        http://think.mtv.com/Cbabb/
     ND    Emily      Catalano    http://think.mtv.com/catalano324/
     NE    Jane       Fleming
                      Kleeb       http://think.mtv.com/janeflemingkleeb/
     NH    Lauren     Sausser     http://think.mtv.com/laurensausser/
     NJ    Sia        Nyorkor     http://think.mtv.com/TheSweetestThing/
     NM    Christine  Begay       http://think.mtv.com/xinemb/
     NV    Michael    Gonzales    http://think.mtv.com/MiGoNev/
     NY    Sara       Benincasa
                      Donnelly    http://think.mtv.com/SaraBenincasa1/
     OH    Joel       Hanek       http://think.mtv.com/jhanek/
     OK    Jill       Penuel      http://think.mtv.com/jillpenuel/
     OR    Joaquin
           Ramon      Herrera     http://think.mtv.com/Nezua/
     PA    Cassidy    Hartmann    http://think.mtv.com/Cassidy_Think/
     RI    Tom        Shevlin     http://think.mtv.com/rireport/
     SC    Shantel    Middleton   http://think.mtv.com/ShantelM/
     SD    Jonna      Langston    http://think.mtv.com/joleah13/
     TN    Dustin     Ogdin       http://think.mtv.com/dustin7/
     TX    Maira      Garcia      http://think.mtv.com/mairalg/
     UT    Charles    Geraci      http://think.mtv.com/cgeraci25/
     VA    Sabina     Thaler      http://think.mtv.com/VASabina/
     VT    Dustin     Degree      http://think.mtv.com/ddegreevt/
     WA    Cory       Midgarden   http://think.mtv.com/Cory_Think/
     WI    Charlie    Berens      http://think.mtv.com/CharlieB/
     WV    Griffin    McElroy     http://think.mtv.com/griffinmcelroy/
     WY    Nick       Perkins     http://think.mtv.com/WesternRebel1/
 
     ABOUT THE KNIGHT FOUNDATION
 
     The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invests in journalism
 excellence worldwide and in the vitality of the U.S. communities. Since
 1950 the foundation has granted more than $300 million to advance quality
 journalism and freedom of expression. It focuses on projects with the
 potential to create transformational change. For more, visit
 www.knightfoundation.org.
 
     ABOUT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
     The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering
 fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms
 and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the largest and most trusted
 source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than
 half the world's population sees news from AP. On the Net: www.ap.org.
 
     ABOUT PNY TECHNOLOGIES
 
     As one of the largest memory chip manufacturers in the country, PNY
 earned the reputation as a leading manufacturer and supplier of a full line
 of memory upgrade modules, Flash Media Cards, USB Flash drives, portable
 hard drives and graphics accelerator cards for consumers and professional
 workstation applications.
 
     PNY products are used by a number of Fortune 500 OEM customers for
 applications that range from high-end computing and
 Internet/telecommunications infrastructure equipment to desktop, notebook
 and network servers. Moreover, PNY's Microsoft Vista compatible products
 provides adopters of the new Windows operating system with enhanced user
 productivity, faster program load times, and crisp, vibrant photos and
 videos.
 
     ABOUT MTV NETWORKS
 
     MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the
 world's leading creators of programming and content across all media
 platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 130 channels worldwide, owns and
 operates the following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC
 TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV
 LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN, VH1 CLASSIC, LOGO, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE
 DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, all of
 which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its
 audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than
 300 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless
 and interactive television services. The network also has licensing
 agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its
 programming services can be seen worldwide.
 
 
 

SOURCE MTV