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Films about America's deaf community and prescription drug abuse in a coal-mining community have been named among the winners of YouTube's contest for budding videojournalists .

Five winners of the Project:Report prize , produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center, will receive grants of $10,000 to fund an assignment on an under-reported story outside of the US.

The competition involved two rounds over three months, for which the winners produced short documentary assignments on subjects of their choosing. The winners and their final assignment topics were :

  • Mark Jeevaratnam, for his report on a group addressing prescription drug abuse in an Appalachian coal-mining town in south east Kentucky;
  • Multimedia producer and graduate student at the University of Miami Paul Franz for the story of Joseph Dieune, a Haitian migrant worker;
  • Broadcast journalism student at the University of Maine Samantha Danis for her report on the deaf community in America;
  • Broadcast journalism student Alex Rozier for his report on an organisation in Missouri helping immobile people;
  • Elan Gepner for his report on the work of the Philadelphia student union to combat violence in the community:

"[W]ith the right tools, access to technology, and distribution platforms like YouTube, everyday citizens from around the world can contribute meaningfully to the newsgathering process," Olivia Ma, news manager for YouTube News & Politics, told Journalism.co.uk during the inaugural Project:Report contest in 2008-9.

"As news bureaux shrink and media organizations are forced to lay off depressingly large percentages of their reporting fleet, engaged individuals can participate in reporting important stories that might otherwise be left aside.

"The journalists who entered Project:Report unquestionably have a significant role in the future of journalism and will help dictate how the news is reported going forward."

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Written by

Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)

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