December 1, 2008

MTV Celebrates Politics Again

Posted by Sarah Burris at 12:00AM

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Last week MTV announced that they will be joining forces with Service Nation to host the Be The Change Inaugural Ball on January 20, 2009:

"The event will celebrate the massive youth-voter turnout in this month's presidential election and an active commitment from America's youth to impart positive social change through volunteer service." the press release said.

While the event will be hosted in Washington DC and tickets will be hard to come by, the festivities will be broadcasted across all MTV stations including MTV, MTV2, and others while also streaming live on MTV.com.

"Over the last year and culminating in this election, we have seen a groundswell of engagement and a refreshed spirit of activism from young people," MTV general manager Stephen Friedman said.

Wanna go to the party? Like most inauguration events, tickets are hard to come by, even though neither ticket prices nor a party time has been announced. The party will take place at the Ronald Reagan Trade Center in downtown Washington, DC. If you can't be there in person, you can join the millions of people watching it live as young people across the country celebrate together knowing that their vote helped elect a President. MTV will also showcase stories of young people providing service to their communities starting on January 1.

For the first time in a very long time, youth are seen as power players on Capitol Hill. Having an event in the place that has traditionally ignored youth or belittled young voters will help fuel youth influence on the hill, while also showing appreciation for the dedication and loyalty to both President-elect Obama and progressive values.

MTV hasn't hosted an inaugural celebration since 1992 when President Bill Clinton was elected. There was also a substantial turnout in youth participation in '92 but that number decreased until 2000, when those trends began moving upward again. That number nearly met the all time record in 1972 when the age of voting was dropped to 18. Rewarding youth participation is important - but also utilizing new technologies like MTV.com's streaming video and putting it on TV for the up and coming teens who are making a difference or are about to is a great way to help bring people in who can't be there.