PBS YouTube Video Your Vote Project

Do you have students in your classes who are voting for the first time? Do you want to get a free Flip camera?

The NewsHour and PBS are partnering with YouTube on an exciting new project called “Video Your Vote,” which will look at the health of democracy in America by focusing on issues surrounding voting and attitudes towards voting. We are looking for classrooms across the country to participate and receive a free Flip camera. Each class will record and upload 10 short videos about the voting experience, contributing to a special YouTube pool of clips on the topic.

There are a variety of ways the videos can be shot. They could be perspectives from students who will be voting in the election for the first time, interviews with parents, teachers and school staff about their past voting experiences, or interviews with election officials about how they are preparing for the election and what they are expecting. Students could visit a retirement community to speak with elderly voters, or if the school will be a voting station they can talk to whoever is in charge. This project is a work in progress so we are certainly open to your ideas.

There is also a voting day component to the project where we would like students to take the cameras to the polls on Nov. 4 if possible. This can happen in a variety of ways, but a few possibilities are sending the cameras with students voting for the first time, or accompanying a few students to a polling place to interview people after they vote. There will be a special “How To” video from YouTube that will give guidelines for video taping at the polls.

Please email me back if you are interested in getting involved in this program at eberryman@newshour.org.

Lizzy Berryman
Director, Teachers Center, NewsHour