TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida A&M University (FAMU) senior Jermaine Fletcher is the winner of the CNN Campus iReporter Contest, and has a chance to be the grand prize winner of a trip for two to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
“I was shocked and more amazed, only because of how fast it gained attention,” said Fletcher, a broadcast journalism student from Richmond, Va. “I got a phone call less than 24-hours after I sent my video, that it would be on the CNN website, and in another 24-hours I got another phone call to notify me that I won the competition. It was amazing.”
Choosing the topic, “What does it mean to be Black in America,” Fletcher decided to put a spin on his almost 10-minute long iReport to effectively reflect black Americans.
“Black people aren’t monotypic by nature,” he said. “So it was very necessary for me to have multiple perspectives. I felt the impact would be greater if I had more than one opinion and more people would connect to it.”
As part of CNN’s Black in America HBCU Tour, an iReporter winner will be chosen from every stop. Each winner is given a digital camera, and will submit a new report focusing on the experiences of their campus' “Black in America Tour” stop for a chance to win the grand prize.
Fletcher will graduate in December 2008, and plans to pursue a career in film production.
About the CNN Special Report
Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN launched a sweeping on-air and digital initiative, Black in America. CNN continues its commitment to groundbreaking documentaries and reporting for Black in America, which examines in-depth the often under-reported stories of the African-American experience. This landmark program features six hours of documentaries, a weekly series of reports on CNN/U.S. and CNN International and a multimedia online effort. For more information, please visit CNN.com’s interactive special section at www.CNN.com/blackinamerica.
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