YouTube And State Department Team Up For Democracy Challenge

The U.S State Department has teamed up with Google's YouTube to bring us the Democracy Challenge, a new video contest designed to get film makers to finish the statement "Democracy is..." People are being asked to produce a video no longer than three minutes to that showcases what they believe Democracy means, and once submitted, these videos will be subjected to jury review to select finalists that will then be put up to public vote.

It seems like they are looking for real videos here though, not the typical geek in his dirty bedroom with a crappy webcam fare found on YouTube. The winners, one from each region of the world (seven all together), will be flown to L.A., New York and Washington, D.C., to meet with producers and Democracy Advocates (I'm not sure what that is, but I'm going to guess that means politicians looking for photo ops). Considering that NBC Universal, this could be a good shot for some burgeoning director to get a foot into the industry.

I'm all for politically charged messages on YouTube, in particular videos that have taken a bit of time to come up with a nice all around flick. If you're over 18 and can make a quality video that answers the question "Democracy is..." in English or subtitled in English that complies with YouTube's standard policies, give it a shot. Your video needs to be submitted by January 31, with the public vote on the finalists occurring in June '09.

'Democracy Challenge' comes to YouTube [News.com]