From MSNBC/MarketWire. The picture is from "Abilities."SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- Arturo Perez, Jr. of San Francisco has been named the grand prize winner of Project: Report for his documentary, "Abilities."
YouTube, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, runs the Project: Report competition (http://youtube.com/projectreport).
Hundreds of people from around the world entered the first of its kind program that called on aspiring journalists to produce short, high quality video pieces focused on stories that are not typically covered by the traditional media. Project: Report was made possible by Sony VAIO and Intel.
After three rounds of competition, the YouTube Community voted on the five finalists and, together with a panel of journalists from the Pulitzer Center, chose Perez. Perez will receive a $10,000 grant to travel abroad and work with the Pulitzer Center on a story of global importance. Perez also received camera and video editing equipment from Sony & Intel throughout the program.
"It's been an incredible experience to participate in Project: Report with such great journalists as competition. Winning this contest means so much," said Perez. "I definitely feel like we are a part of building the future of journalism: if you see a story, you now have the opportunity to report on it."
Perez's winning video explores the lives of the residents of Camphill, California. Camphill is a community where adults with developmental disabilities live, learn and work together. Residents experience a range of disabilities including but not limited to Fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and Down's syndrome. Perez worked with Camphill residents to use the camera to document their own lives."We couldn't be more thrilled with the results of our first ever journalism competition. Like thousands of others around the globe, these talented reporters are using new media to broadcast stories from their communities to the world," said Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics for YouTube. "They are the next generation of journalists."
"We're impressed by the range of topics and the depth of the stories that our finalists produced for Project: Report," said Jon Sawyer, Executive Director of the Pulitzer Center. "We look forward to working with Arturo to produce a story from abroad on an issue that is underreported by the traditional media. That's what the Pulitzer Center is all about."
The winning video as well as all of the final and semi-final submissions can be seen at www.youtube.com/projectreport.
