Viewers Can Watch All the Action at MTVNews.com, ChooseorLose.com and Via
Special MTV News On-Air Reports
'Street Team '08' Citizen Journalists Armed with Market-Leading Nokia
Nseries Devices and Flixwagon's Innovative Software
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 http://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 http://www.ChooseorLose.com.
For more information about the Nokia Nseries devices used by MTV,
please visit: http://www.nseries.com/N95 and for more information about Flixwagon,
please visit: http://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
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Related links:
http://www.mtv.com
http://www.ChooseorLose.com http://Think.MTV.com
http://www.flixwagon.com http://m.StreetTeam08.com
http://www.nseries.com/N95 http://MTVNews.com
CONTACT:
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
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