MTV's 'Choose or Lose' Citizen Journalists Cover Every Super Tuesday State
With First-Ever Live Mobile-to-Web Broadcasts
Viewers Can Watch All the Action at MTVNews.com, ChooseorLose.com and Via
Special MTV News On-Air Reports
NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV's army of Street Team '08 citizen
journalists will cover the youth vote like no one else on Super Tuesday,
delivering the first-ever live mobile-to-web broadcasts -- from polling
stations, caucuses, candidate rallies and everywhere young voters congregate
February 5th.
The real-time, on-the-spot reports will be streamed live all day from
correspondents' video-equipped mobile phones to MTVNews.com and
ChooseorLose.com. Throughout the day, MTV will regularly break into
programming and showcase news featurettes excerpted from the live reports.
The effort is part of MTV's constantly evolving, Emmy-winning "Choose or Lose"
campaign and will offer the network's citizen journalists an unprecedented
stage -- with the potential to reach as many as 100 million viewers -- as they
bring all the Super Tuesday action to America's youth as it happens.
"Young people are taking hold of the political process like never before,
and are clamoring to share and react to the stories as they unfold on the
campaign trail in real-time," said Christina Norman, President of MTV. "The
Street Team's Super Tuesday coverage will be hyper-focused on the issues and
stories that matter most to our audience, empowering them to experience the
day's historic events in a whole new way."
MTV's Street Team of citizen journalists will be using Nokia N95 devices,
fully-fledged multimedia computers with a leading-class 5 megapixel camera and
DVD-like quality video camera capabilities that allow them to create, edit and
upload their stories instantly to the Internet. "Nokia is proud and excited
to see our flagship Nokia N95 multimedia devices being used so creatively to
support and promote the electoral process," commented Bill Plummer, Vice
President, Sales, Nokia Americas. "Nokia Nseries devices are at the forefront
of mobile technology, in this case delivering real-time high-quality Internet-
ready audio and video reporting from the polls -- the very way that first-time
and future voters have come to expect their news."
An innovative application, provided by Flixwagon, powers the mobile
broadcasting technology by allowing anyone with a capable 3G phone to stream
live video to the Internet and store it for later viewing. "Flixwagon.com is
changing the way people share life experiences," said Eran Hess, President, My
Frame Inc. "The Choose or Lose campaign is an excellent example of how
Flixwagon can empower people to broadcast their own unique perspective of
Super Tuesday from their mobile phone and share it live on the Web with
millions of people."
An interactive map at MTVNews.com and ChooseorLose.com will notify users
when the citizen journalists are broadcasting live from one of the 23 states
holding a primary or caucus on February 5th. In addition to mobile reporting,
the Street Team members will be blogging the latest from every Super Tuesday
state throughout the day on ChooseorLose.com.
MTV's innovative mobile phone-to-Web efforts on Super Tuesday are an
element of its acclaimed "Choose or Lose '08" campaign to engage, educate and
empower young voters. A major component of this year's campaign is the "MTV
Street Team '08" -- 51 state-based citizen journalists who contribute weekly,
multimedia reports (such as short form videos, blogs, animation, photos,
podcasts) that are distributed via WAP site m.StreetTeam08.com, carriers in
the MTV Mobile family, the Think Community (Think.MTV.com) and several other
media platforms.
Carefully selected by MTV after an extensive nationwide search, the one-
of-a-kind press corps utilize mobile media like laptops, video cameras and
cell phones to uncover the untold political stories that matter most to young
people in their respective states. 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 "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.
On the Saturday before Super Tuesday, MTV, MySpace and the Associated
Press are offering all of the frontrunner candidates from both parties one
last chance to address the important youth voting bloc with "Closing
Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue." Taking place Saturday, February 2,
2008 at 6 PM ET live on-air, online, radio and mobile phones, the event is the
next installment of MySpace and MTV's acclaimed Presidential Dialogue Series.
More info on how to watch or join in and pose real time questions to confirmed
participants Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama and Ron Paul is
available at www.ChooseorLose.com.
For more information about the Nokia Nseries devices used by MTV, please
visit: www.nseries.com/N95 and for more information about Flixwagon, please
visit: www.flixwagon.com.
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
Matthew Hutchison, +1-212-846-8052, Matthew.Hutchison@mtvstaff.com, or Jason
Rzepka, +1-212-654-7198, Jason.Rzepka@mtvstaff.com, or Mariana Agathoklis,
+1-212-846-5755, Mariana.Agathoklis@mtvstaff.com, all of MTV
