ACLU Stand Up for Freedom Contest
Alex Hawes, Staff Reporter

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is holding the third annual “Stand Up for Freedom Contest,” but this year, contestants can turn in their work in one of two mediums. Entries can be in the original form, a public service announcement (PSA) or the new medium, a podcast.

In the past, PSA’s have been the only medium used for contest but because of the boom in popularity of MP3 players, the change was made.

There will be 12 finalists including six podcasts and six PSA’s. The ACLU Monterey chapter chairman Elliot Roberts-Ruchowitz said, “There are three criteria contestants are graded upon; how effective the PSA or podcast is, production technique, and originality.”

Once the 12 finalists are chosen, a panel of business professionals and public figures choose the winners from the two medium categories.

Winners in the PSA category receive $2000 dollars and winners in the podcast category receive $1000 dollars. There are also several prizes for runner-ups including most humorous, best production quality and most original, all receiving $500 dollars.

CSU Monterey Bay professor and ACLU member Sharlene Gregg said, “ It seems like a great way to get younger people involved with public discourse. Youth seem to prefer film and podcasts to essays, thus making the project more interesting to the entrants.”

• While this years contest is targeting a younger audience, some students feel enough publicity hasn’t been done. CSUMB student Giovanni Calegari said, “I wish there’d been a bigger effort to notify people about the contest. If the ACLU had put a spot out on TV, or something on Facebook, I might have known about it sooner and have been able to be a part of it.”

Entries are due by October 4 and contestants can submit them online at http://www.aclu.org/standup/contest/contest_index.html.