As momentum builds towards the climax of the biggest event in the 2008 world political calendar, CNN International is putting viewer comment at the centre of its U.S presidential election coverage with its ‘World View' initiative. ‘World View' seeks to give voice to the thousands of young people worldwide who have something to say about the impact of the U.S elections on their country and continent by encouraging students to upload a self-authored video telling CNN why the 2008 U.S Election is important to them. All videos can be viewed at www.ireport.com/worldview and CNN International will select the best to broadcast on air across CNN's global feeds. To date, videos have been received from as far afield as Latvia, Kuwait, Colombia, Japan, the UK, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, Italy, Lebanon, the Czech Republic, Uganda and South Africa. "The story we have here, in addition to an amazing political race, is one of people's reaction to this election from around the world, and we are making sure as many as possible have a chance to get involved", says Mark Haviland, Director, Marketing, CNN International. Social networking site Bebo will support ‘World View', CNN International's US Elections global universities project by hosting a concentrated drive for students to give their views via CNN's citizen journalism website http://www.ireport.com/. CNN International's iReport correspondent Errol Barnett's call-to-action video will stream across www.bebo.com/cnn in an effort to grab the attention of the international audience. And targeted local language outreach includes a similar call-to-action video in German, featuring CNN International correspondent Fred Pleitgen, streaming on YouTube. "Aside from the huge appetite for election news amongst our audience, people are also keener than ever to give us their thoughts. These various means of social and political self-expression empower users to join in the global conversation on the U.S Elections," adds Nick Wrenn, VP Digital Media, CNN International. Supported by a multi platform marketing campaign including outdoor advertising, banner campaigns across key websites, online and print advertising as well as electronic direct mailers, and a viral and video campaign, ‘World View' involves more than a thousand universities in more than one hundred countries worldwide. ‘World View' forms only part of CNN International's initiatives designed to spotlight the opinions of its audience during the U.S presidential elections. As CNN's team of political experts continue to deliver up-to-the-minute news and analysis the network has brought audiences into the fold via outreach on The Forum, Facebook Connect and CNN.com. The Forum (www.cnn.com/forum) is a special section of CNN.com where users can create political badges that identify their positions on key election issues, provide comment and see where others in The Forum stand on those issues. The ‘Facebook Connect' service within The Forum allows users to ‘connect' their CNN.com and Facebook accounts so they can share comments from The Forum within the newsfeed of their Facebook page. Viewers from around the world can follow the U.S presidential election as CNN International simulcasts hours of CNN's non-stop coverage. The network has teams in place in more than 32 countries with correspondents in Obama's ancestral home town in Kenya as well as in Iraq, Israel and key capitals of Europe, Asia and Latin America. - Ends - Click below link for an interactive demonstration by iReport correspondent Errol Barnett as he navigates users on how to submit and share their opinions on the U.S. elections. (http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/ireports/2008/09/14/irpt.world.view.cnn) **The clip can be embedded into your website free of charge, simply by playing the video and pressing the "EMBED" button underneath the clip. For more information, please visit http://www.cnn.com/pressroom |
