MTV recruits youths to cover elections

MTV, part of the media conglomerate Viacom Inc., has recruited 51 youths to cover the 2008 elections throughout the country with weekly reports that will include short videos, blogs and animation.

The reports will be distributed through Think.MTV.com, an issue-based political and community Web site run by MTV; to mobile devices through a soon-to-be launched service called MTV Mobile; and through The Associated Press' Online Video Network, a video news service that is hosted by more than 1,800 Web sites.

The arrangement announced Thursday is part of MTV's "Choose or Lose" political awareness campaign and was funded partly by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a private journalism foundation based in Miami.

The participants in the program will be equipped with laptop computers, cell phones and video cameras and tasked with finding political stories that will particularly resonate with young people.

Participants in the "Street Team '08" project have profiles on Think.MTV.com. MTV recruited one member from every state as well as Washington, D.C.

___

On the Net:

MTV's Think site: http://Think.MTV.com

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: http://www.knightfoundation.org