CHOOSE or LOSE

Highsmith selected for MTV’s voting initiative

by Aileen Li, Staff Writer

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Think MTV and politics have nothing to do with each other? Think again. Think voting is for old people? MTV is changing that.

MTV’s Choose or Lose and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are presenting Street Team 2008, which is composed of 51 state-based citizen journalists covering the 2008 election from a younger perspective.

Citizen journalism consists of citizens actively collecting, reporting and analyzing news and information. These 51 journalists, armed with video cameras, report political stories that matter most to young people. They post weekly reports and blogs online and via mobile phones.

“By telling untold political stories, and focusing on the platforms young people use most, we aim to help them get informed on the issues that are important to them,” said Ian Rowe, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs for MTV.

The Georgia citizen journalist this year, Shelby Highsmith, is a Mechanical Engineering graduate student here at Tech.

Highsmith got involved with the campaign because he saw it as a good opportunity to expand his horizons, and he went for it. Highsmith has served as the Communication Chair for Young Democrats of Atlanta. After that, he freelanced in the political communication arena by staying on top of blogs like Techpresidents.com and exploring the political utility of websites like YouTube.

Since 2005, Highsmith was a citizen journalist as a part of the 2006 presidential campaign and for CNN. By the time of application for this campaign, Highsmith had more than a dozen political videos on YouTube.

“To be selected from over 600 applicants is a testament to how good Shelby and his fellow Street Teamers are and how passionate they are about public policy,” Rowe said.

Although Highsmith is studying Mechanical Engineering, he hopes to integrate public policy into his career path.

“Personally, as a graduate student in engineering at Georgia Tech, I am hoping to pursue a career closer to the policy sector myself, ultimately, and I welcome these opportunities as a citizen journalist to develop my communications skills,” Highsmith said.

Highsmith’s job, quite simply told, is to tell the stories that often go untold in local politics with a national flavor.

Although Highsmith and the other 50 citizen journalists have to publish a story every week, they are not limited to what kind of story to explore and publish.

“We are actually given quite a lot of latitude in our own editorial discretion when it comes to what stories we produce; we haven’t been sent out with a mandate to cover the horse race of presidential politics, nor do we receive weekly orders about what the ‘hot’ news story is,” Highsmith said.

During orientation at the MTV headquarters, Highsmith and others were encouraged to tie the “local beat” to national issues.

“As a Georgia Tech graduate student, my overarching theme will be technology, whether it be the kind of technology that impacts elections. So really, all I need to do to do my job well is keep my ear to the ground, listen to young voters and their concerns, and always have my camera ready,” Highsmith said.

To further reach the audience, MTV has teamed up with the Associated Press who will post select “Street Team ‘08” reports on their AP Online Video Network.

“This collaboration will reach over 1,800 media sites bringing even more exposure to the youth voice. Profiles of all 51 of Street Team ‘08 as well as their reports will be active on the Think Community site (Think.MTV.com),” Rowe said.

More excitingly, MTV plans to showcase the best of the Street Team content on all MTV platforms.

With the availability of mobile networks and the internet being such a huge part of young people’s lives, MTV is excited to see what impact the Choose or Lose campaign will have on the number of youth votes.

“MTV has a history of helping drive the youth vote. In 2004 we were successful in helping to inspire more than 22 million young people to vote. We’re keenly interested to see how experimenting with reporting from a youth perspective and through mobile devices will effect the youth voter turnout this time around,” Rowe said.

With websites like Think.MTV.com, and www.StreetTeam08.com, students who do not like to read boring election coverage can now read fresh stories or look at exciting videos made by young people. Make sure to stay on top of it!