MTV vs. The New York Times? Yes, the music network, more known for pimpin' cars and punking celebrities, will compete with The New York Times, The Washington Post and National Geographic for the first ever Emmy Award for news and documentaries especially made for new media.
The new category recognizes content developed, not repurposed for, platforms such as the Internet, cellular phones or personal media players.
MTV was nominated for MTV News on MTV Overdrive (www.mtv.com/overdrive), its broadband portal. That portal featured The Diary of Gideon inPakistan.Producer and reporter Gideon Yago went to that country and documented the devastation and recovery of its people after an Oct. 8 earthquake that killed 87,000 and made 3.5 million people homeless.
The competition includes Hurricane Katrina Webcasts by National Geographic Online (www.nationalgeographic.com) and National Geographic on MSN.com (www.msn.com); a Web documentary on the Times’ Web site (www.nytimes.com) on genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan; an exclusive broadband interview, also on the Times’ site, with a teen-ager who ran a Webcam porn business for five years before becoming a witness for the Justice Department; a Web documentary on the issues confronting the country of Azerbaijan, which appeared on The Washington Post’s site (www.washingtonpost.com); and that newspaper's digital vignettes on survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
The new-media news and documentary award will be announced in New York Sept. 25.
