Citizen Kate

Citizen Kate is a continuing web series and video blog about Citizen journalism. In 2008, when the series was first created by Carey Lundin of Viva Lundin Productions, "Kate Soglin, a young "citizen journalist," gave the outsider’s view of inside politics. Citizen Kate was one of the first Citizen Journalists to hit the 2008 presidential campaign trail. She started her video blog coverage on February 10, 2007 at Barack Obama's announcement to run for president in Springfield, Illinois. She has filed several vblogs about the presidential campaign and politics on her web site CitizenKate.tv.

This February 2016, Citizen Kate again hit the campaign trail, this time two characters, Kate and her half-sister, Alexa Lopez (who is African American and Hispanic) are looking for truth, jobs and America's future. The new site, citizenkate.net launched on April 1, 2016. The current Citizen Kate stars the improvisers Abby Vatterott and Kimberly Michelle Vaughn.

The new series has a stated mission of driving youth voters to the ballot box. The series did a test for their ability to reach youth voters of the Wisconsin primary, releasing PSAs directed at Sanders, Clinton and Cruz voters to BringitWisconsin.gov, a voter ID info site. The series creator, Carey Lundin, president of Viva Lundin Productions, read an article that showed Governor Scott Walker had passed a new set of IDs to be brought to the polls, then failed to promote it. The PSAs and subsequent send ups of news coverage including "Who Cut the Cheese" about presidential candidate Ted Cruz's refusal to don a cheese hat, have been extremely popular with the Millennial audience.

In 2008, when the Butter Head of Barack Obama became a national story, jokingly cited by Keith Olberman on his show "Countdown" for MSNBC as the reason behind his last minute bump in the polls, no one credited Citizen Kate for both coming up with the idea for Duffy Lyon "the Butter Lady of Iowa" and for paying for the sculpture. Citizen Kate proceeded to air the video on her website CitizenKate.tv seed blogs and send notes to reporters asking to be credited. Only Screen Magazine credited her.

Her quest to meet Obama and find out what it takes to be a "Great Leader" landed her on , a site created by Jeff Jarvis, covering the YouTube Campaign 2008. The site identified Citizen Kate as the first Obama stalker, which led to a mention of her in the Chicago Tribune on February 26, 2007. The Tribune story was also picked up by The Economist Global Technology Forum.[1] In April 2007, YouTube's CitizenTube editor highlighted Citizen Kate's "crush" on Obama and demonstration of "serious pluck" in the YouTube Staff Picks of the Week.[2] People have described Citizen Kate as "half valley girl, half Michael Moore", legally blonde, a "YouTube Hottie", an enterprising reporter, and funny.[3][4][5]

Without any experience in either politics or reporting, Citizen Kate attends political events, where she talks with senators, delegates, and presidential candidates in order to uncover the political process. She caught the attention of the media when she attended the 2007 California Democratic Convention in San Diego, where she interviewed Senator Chris Dodd and asked Senator John Edwards a question during his press conference.[6] When Kate asked Edwards for a job, he appeared visibly nervous. The resemblance to his alleged mistress was striking - blond, leopard print headband, party girl, with video camera.

Citizen Kate also publishes her News & Politics videos on YouTube, along with a written blog about her experience on MySpace. Veoh, the original distributors of the Prom Queen web series, features Citizen Kate on their site each week and launched the first Citizen Kate Channel.

Background

The original Citizen Kate, real name Kate Soglin, hails from Chicago, Illinois. She speaks Spanish and loves shoes. She stands by her key message and platform of "Peace and Hugs". Her major concern is the environment, and founded the small environmental organization, Friends with Trees. Soglin first interviewed Illinois Senator Dick Durbin at Barack Obama's presidential announcement.[7] She caught the attention of the Illinois Lieutenant Governor and shook hands with him at Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog Party the night before Obama's announcement.[4] And the Mayor of Springfield, Illinois, Tim Davlin, was the first mayor to kiss Citizen Kate's cheek.[8]

There's just one thing. Citizen Kate is the made-up character portrayed by improv actress and writer, Julia Saboda. Citizen Kate was created by Carey Lundin and produced by Julia Saboda, Chris Peppey, Carey Lundin and Michael Perri.

Other notable facts

References

  1. ↑ The Economist Global Technology Forum
  2. ↑ Steve, CitizenTube Editor, Staff Picks of the Week, April 13, 2007 highlights Citizen Kate's crush on Obama and selects her vblog as one to watch on YouTube
  3. ↑ Turner, Cynthia, Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis, April 5, 2007 in her Website of the Day section
  4. 1 2 Reynolds, Will, Citizen Kate visits Springfield, March 6, 2007 on his blog Where there's a Will, there's a way
  5. ↑ Pollard, Vic, Is this the future of political journalism?, May 24, 2007, on his Bakersfield.com Politics Anyone Blog
  6. ↑ Ainsworth, Bill, Even in GOP county, Obama's king of cash, April 30, 2007 in The San Diego Union-Tribune
  7. ↑ Part 5: Citizen Kate Barack's the Vote featuring an interview with Senator Dick Durbin at Barack Obama's Announcement in Springfield, IL on February 10, 2007, video posted March 16, 2007 on YouTube
  8. ↑ Part 2: Political Pancakes Tim Davlin, the Mayor of Springfield, Illinois, kisses the cheek of Citizen Kate at Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog Party on February 9, 2007, video posted February 15, 2007 on YouTube
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