Voto Latino

• At Pushback, Kay Steiger identifies a huge problem with how a part of the College Cost Reduction Act is being administered. Under current administration, students who opt to go into public service won't be informed that they are eligible to receive debt relief on their loans until 10 years after they begin making payments, effectively nullifying the program and its incentive to provoke public service. The Project on Student Debt is running a petition here.
• US News has an interesting piece analyzing the wisdom of McCain and Obama's respective strategies of targeting the elderly and youth in swing states. More on this later but wanted to call it to your attention.
• I'm super skeptical of celebrity spokespeople, but Rosario Dawson (a founder of Voto Latino) did a good job today on "Morning Joe," an MSNBC program that has been about telling an accurate story about the youth vote this cycle.
• The Hip Hop Caucus reports that Nas, MoveOn, and Color of Change are outside Fox News today protesting racism in the network's coverage.
• Daniel Klein recaps our panel at Netroots Nation over at the YP4 blog.
• Some humor for you.

I'm in Denver today. Tonight at 7:30 I'll be doing a book event at the Tattered Cover (Historic LoDo). Stop by if you are around. Later today I'll have a review up of Millennial Makeover: YouTube, MySpace, and the Future of American Politics. In the meantime, here's what's interesting today on the youthy side of the interwebs:

• Voto Latino jumps on the CD-fundraiser bandwagon. For $3.99 on iTunes you can download an album featuring tracks by Ozomatli and a number of other bands. Proceeds will benefit Voto Latino, a mostly volunteer nonpartisan voter registration outfit.
• Fred Stutzman of Unit Structures wonders about the role of "curation" in an age of mashups and social software.
• John McCain does not support the troops. ABC News has him on-record opposing the new GI Bill I wrote about yesterday.
• At WireTap, Karlo Barrios Marcelo explains how the popular vote could help enfranchise more young african american and latino voters.
• On April 20th in Philadelphia, the Hip Hop Summit action Network, Voto Latino, PowerPAC and the Hip Hop Research and Action Fund will team up with rappers and hip hop stars to launch The National Hip Hop Team Vote 2008 campaign. The campaign will seek to turn out young people for the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.
• Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle has a great piece about the competition in California for delegate slots to the convention, and how some people ran mini campaigns on the ground and on the web to rustle up support. FM friend and former USSA president Jenn Pae was quoted in the article.
• Kay Steiger of Campus Progress points us to an interesting article about the differing views of younger and older feminists about Sen. Clinton's campaign and the state of the movement.
• Ending on a high-note, young Oklahoma senate candidate Andrew Rice raised almost half a million dollars this quarter, and has passed the 1 million mark for the campaign. Rice is seeking to unseat global warming denier Jim Inhofe. Congrats to Andrew and his staff, and good luck.
  

I don't know what's in the air or water today, but my inbox is piled high with news from nonpartisan, "c3" youth organizations: Rock the Vote, Voto Latino, HeadCount, and WireTap. It seems like they all decided that today was the day for product launches.

Here's a rundown:

• Rock the Vote is following in the footsteps of MTV's Street Team '08 project and is looking to hire a few citizen journalists. The program is called "Rock the Trail," and it is being conducted in partnership with WireTap Magazine and BET, all of which will cross post journalist submissions. AT&T is the mobile partner for the project. A panel of expert judges will determine who the lucky winners are. The pay is a very small $500 per month stipend, but they hook you up with a lot of gear. Applications are due by May 7th.
• Voto Latino is making a similar play. They've partnered with SiTV and CNN to find two aspiring journalists to cover the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. They're project, dubbed Crash the Parties is a little more participatory. Applicants must sign up for a profile on the Crash the Parties website and submit a video explaining why they deserve to cover the two party conventions. Other applicants and registered users can vote on the contestants. The winners are determined by a combination of votes and the input of a judges panel that includes Rosario Dawson, Craig Newmark and Steve Grove. Applications are due by May 6th.
• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) just launched a new site, GI Bill 2008, in support of the bill of the same name. I noticed that my congressperson has not yet signed on in support of the bill and just sent her a message.
• The full version of A Call To Action, the documentary about HeadCount (which we've blogged about numerous times in the past) was released on iClips today. It's a little confusing, but the links on the right sidebar a "chapter" titles that let you skip around within the documentary.

In other news:

• The American Prospect is looking for a few good writing fellows. The pay is low(ish), but alumns have gone on to bigger and better things at the Washington Post, Salon, The Nation and more. Applications are due May 1st.
• Some old Dodd folks sent me this:
  

  WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee Banking Committee and senior Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine how the recent turmoil in U.S. credit markets is affecting the cost and availability of student loans. Witnesses will testify on how the tightening of credit, a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, may make it more difficult for some student lenders to provide educational loans for students and their families.

Something I've been meaning to highlight further is Voto Latino, a non-partisn voter registration outfit targeting Latino voters. They are one of a number of organizations targeting Latino voters this election cycle.

In the 2006 midterms, young Latino voters were one of the least likely ethnic groups to go to the polls (along with Asian-Pacific Islanders). Yet they are also one of the fastest growing groups in the youth demographic, and thanks to the GOP's handling of immigration, they are increasingly leaning democratic.

Voto Latino has a fairly novel approach to reaching young Latinos. They are using a combination of MySpace outreach, and targeted PSAs satirizing the popular "telenovelas" that so many 1st and 2nd generation latinos grew up watching. Here's one staring Wilmer Valderama and Rosario Dawson:

This is actually a great segway to a post I read earlier this week about best practices for creating successful advertisements to reach young voters. A study by Survey U asked students to rate what they look for in an advertisement and these were their responses (h/t Ypulse):

Be truthful
60 percent said extremely important
30 percent said somewhat important
7 percent said important nor unimportant
2 percent said not very important
2 percent said not important at all

Show the functionality
41 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
11 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
2 percent said not important at all

Show me the value
38 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
13 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all

Be current
30 percent said extremely important
49 percent said somewhat important
14 percent said important nor unimportant
4 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all

Be funny
32 percent said extremely important
46 percent said somewhat important
16 percent said important nor unimportant
3 percent said not very important
3 percent said not important at all

Speak to me in my own language
35 percent said extremely important
38 percent said somewhat important
19 percent said important nor unimportant
5 percent said not very important
4 percent said not important at all

Be cutting edge
20 percent said extremely important
43 percent said somewhat important
26 percent said important nor unimportant
6 percent said not very important
5 percent said not important at all

Be stylish
15 percent said extremely important
42 percent said somewhat important
27 percent said important nor unimportant
10 percent said not very important
6 percent said not important at all

Exude cool
8 percent said extremely important
26 percent said somewhat important
42 percent said important nor unimportant
15 percent said not very important
8 percent said not important at all

This seems like best practices for any advertising, not just youth targeted, but after this debacle of a PSA from Pizza Hut, I figure it is good advice for any organization looking to target young people. Applying it to Voto Latino, I can't say that the mock-telenovela really speaks to me (it feels super long), but I'm clearly not the target demographic, and I'd say it hits at least half of the guidelines above.