MySpace and NBC have announced the winners of the Decsion08 Convention contest for citizen journalists.
Close to 50,000 MySpace users cast votes and selected Matt Britten and Sara Pat Badgley to act as citizen journalists at the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions.
The contest launched on June 25 and allowed MySpace users 18 and over to post videos that answered the question “How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?” A panel of judges from MySpace and MSNBC narrowed it down to five finalists and MySpace members voted for their favorite finalists to attend the conventions.
The winners will have full press credentials at the conventions and will receive handheld video cameras and will be blogging along with posting videos to the Decision08 site. They will also blog and post videos on their personal MySpace profiles. The content may also appear on msnbc.com.
Matt Britten will attend the Democratic convention in Denver, August 25-28. “I love politics, I love news, and I love watching politics on the news,” said Britten. “I have the political knowledge to know what questions to ask, the tenacity to get out there and ask them, and I am ready to have a lot of fun doing it.”
Sara Pat Badgley will attend the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, September 1-4. “Citizen journalism is a way to attract individual thoughts and feelings on the issues, not collective opinions,” said Badgley.
