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MTV taps BHSU student
Jonna Langston will file weekly multimedia reports on political campaigns until November election
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FarkWorking as a political correspondent for MTV was not on Jonna Langston’s to-do list for her sophomore year at Black Hills State University in Spearfish.
She got an MTV gig almost by accident.
Langston’s newswriting professor, Mary Caton-Rosser, mentioned in class that MTV was recruiting a “Street Team ’08” -- a group of 51 young “citizen journalists.” (One from each state and the District of Columbia.)
“The first couple of times she mentioned it, I was like, I don’t have time.”
Caton-Rosser persisted, in part because MTV was on a tight deadline. “They needed applications in a couple of days,” Caton-Rosser said.
Langston agreed to fill out an online application. Within a couple of weeks, MTV notified her she was one of three South Dakota finalists.
Her next assignment was to make a video, one to three minutes, about a local social or political topic.
Langston borrowed a camera to shoot a story about recent “Green Day” activities at BHSU.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” she said.
Langston, 19, grew up in Lusk, Wyo. Her mother is the debate coach at Niobrara County High School. So, naturally, Langston participated. She also was on the volleyball team.
Her mother insisted the laptop computer her daughter was taking to college have a video-editing program on it.
“I was like, Mom, are you serious? I’ll never use video software,” Langston said.
Mom turned out to be right. After shooting with an unfamiliar camera and loading the video into her computer, Langston figured out, quickly, how to do basic editing. “I thought, there is NO way I’ll ever get this job, because this video is really, really amateurish.”
She was wrong. On Monday, Langston left for New York City to attend a three-day orientation and training at MTV headquarters. She’ll also meet the 50 other members of the team.
Langston will get a new computer, more video software and a video camera, which she will use to cover, an MTV news release said, “the untold political stories that matter most to young people in their states.”
The project is part of MTV’s Emmy-winning “Choose or Lose” program to engage young people in politics. It’s also sponsored by the Knight Foundation and The Associated Press.
The “Street Team '08” members, according to an MTV news release, “are conservative, liberal, from big cities and small towns.” They’ll get the opportunity “to amplify the youth voice during this pivotal election.”
Beginning in a couple of weeks, Langston will have to produce weekly “multimedia reports.” They can be short videos, written articles, blog entries, still photos or podcasts.
Caton-Rosser believes Langston will do a good job for MTV.
“I’m impressed with her as a student,” Caton-Rosser said. “She’s from a small town, but she has a big-picture way of looking at things,” she said.
Caton-Rosser predicted the experience at MTV would be “life changing” for Langston, and she hopes it inspires other journalism students to think about careers for national news organizations.
MTV will encourage “Street Team ’08” members to cover local and state races, too, but Langston thinks she’ll focus on the race for president. “It’s easier for college-age students to relate to,” she said.
Most of her stories will come from BHSU and from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City, but she also plans to head east to other state universities.
“I don’t want to ignore the other side of the state,” she said.
Her reports will be distributed to cell phones through MTV mobile. They’ll also be posted online, and they’ll go to more than 1,800 sites in the Associate Press Online Network.
Some “Street Team” reports could air on MTV cable channels.
Langston started college at the University of Wyoming, heading toward political science. Now she’s a mass communications major with a minor in telecommunications. “My goal when I graduate is, I really, really want to do broadcast journalism,” she said.
It’s hard to imagine a better opportunity to learn than meeting a weekly deadline, until Nov. 4, for a national television and news gathering network. Her audience is potentially in the tens of millions.
Langston’s MTV Web page already is online. It offers this quote from Langston: “Feigned tolerance for the sake of ‘political correctness’ or societal acceptance doesn’t make you any less ignorant than the person who is openly prejudiced."
Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com
MTV and Jonna Langston on the Web
MTV’s Emmy-winning “Choose or Lose” program is at www.ChooseorLose.com
Jonna Langston’s “Think MTV” Web page is at http://think.mtv.com/joleah13/
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