This just in from MTV…

“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

“Street Team ‘08” Citizen Journalists Armed with Market-Leading Nokia Nseries

Devices and Flixwagon’s Innovative Software

NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2008 – 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 5^th. 

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 5^th.  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.