Indiana University School of Journalism

Home » Features » Damron follows elections as MTV ‘Street Team’ reporter

Photo by Riya Anandwala

Senior Alex Damron was a member of MTV’s Street Team covering election news. He also focuses on his classes, including J343 Broadcast News.

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Senior Alex Damron just wrapped up his work interviewing youth on the streets of Indiana as part of his work as an MTV Street Team reporter, a job that meshed his political science and journalism interests.

As citizen journalist for the broadcast company, Damron provided one straightforward report, blog or video per week for the Web site, ChooseOrLose.com, an offshoot of MTV. Two of his videos also were posted on the Associated Press wire service site, which is in partnership with MTV.

MTV devised the project, Street Team ’08, to get grassroots reactions and opinions surrounding the 2008 election process. The organizers sought 51 young reporters to supply multimedia content from the beginning of the year through election day. A $700,000 Knight News Challenge grant is funding the program, according to the MTV Web site.

Damron’s work revolved around the recent political campaigns. He said he spent election day streaming video onto the ChooseOrLose Web site. A couple of his interviews from IU were used on MTV’s on-air news updates.

Motivated to become a political journalist, Damron said he’s glad to have had the job, which he started this fall after having to pass on the gig a year ago because he was headed abroad for a political science exchange program.

"I was really looking forward to it, but had to take off for my exchange program in the Oxford University. I thought I had almost lost the job, til I got a call from them again this fall," said Damron, who is a double major in journalism and political science.

Damron was the Indiana representative for the MTV project. He interviewed college students about election and social issues in Indianapolis and Bloomington.

"We are mainly getting the youth involved in this presidential coverage and asking them to voice their opinion," Damron stated.

Apart from straightforward reports, he also created podcasts for the Web. He already has interned with a California ABC affiliate and hopes to work in visual communication from a digital media perspective after he graduates.

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