MU Journalism Student Wins YouTube International Reporting Competition
One of Five Winners of Prestigious Award
May 7th, 2010
Alex Rozier is a senior studying radio and television journalism at MU.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Alex Rozier, a senior at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is one of five grand-prize winners in YouTube’s international competition, “Project: Report.” The competition is a partnership between the video website and the Pulitzer Center that encourages non-professional, aspiring journalists to tell stories that ordinarily might not be told. Rozier, who is studying radio and television journalism at MU, won a $10,000 grant to work with the Pulziter Center on an international reporting project.
“Alex is the kind of young journalist who should make us all very optimistic for the future of news,” said Holly Edgell, an assistant professor of radio-television journalism. “He is truly interested in people and their stories, and he will go to the ends of the earth to bring these stories to life. Now, with the ‘Project: Report’ prize, he literally can do that.”
Rozier’s winning entry, “The World Mobility Problem,” focuses on a Columbia man whose faith inspired him to start the Personal Energy Transportation (PET) project, which provides appropriate mobility devices to people in need around the world. In 2009, more than 1,850 vehicles were distributed by the organization.
Rozier was eligible to participate in the finals after placing in the top 10 of the first round of the competition. His winning entry in the semi-final round, “The Story of Amanda McDaniel,” was about a Columbia teen who suffers from childhood bone cancer, yet still cheers for her high school sports teams.
Link to “The Story of Amanda McDaniel,” on YouTube: http://bit.ly/daGvwY and “The World Mobility Problem,” on YouTube: http://bit.ly/dDa21A.