HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We report about the YouTube Video Awards. HOST: The popular Web site YouTube recently presented its first online video awards to recognize the creative efforts of its large community. YouTube viewers around the world voted for their favorites in seven different video categories. Faith Lapidus tells us about three of the winners.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Thanks to YouTube, any creative person with a special camera and a computer can create a video and share it online. Millions of people around the world watch these videos on their computers. So the creators of popular videos can become famous very quickly. Some videos have been watched millions of times.
YouTube viewers recently chose the best videos of last year. The Most Creative Award went to the rock band OK Go for the video of its song "Here It Goes Again." (MUSIC) In this video, the four band members jump and dance on and around eight exercise machines called treadmills. The entire video was filmed in one recording. The video is very funny. It shows the band's creativity, skillful balance and careful movements. "Here It Goes Again" has been watched about fifteen million times. The Most Inspirational Award went to Juan Mann from Australia for his "Free Hugs" video. In this video, Juan stands in busy public places holding a sign that says he is giving free hugs.
At first, strangers look at him with distrust and walk by. But soon, people stop to put their arms around him and give him a hug. Policemen try to stop his hug campaign. But many people help him to continue his free hugs activism. The video is a nice example of different kinds of human interaction. It has been watched about thirteen million times.
The Most Adorable Award went to Dony Permedi for an animated cartoon about a bird. It is called "Kiwi!" (MUSIC) A kiwi bird cannot fly. But in the video, the bird works hard to make his dream of flying through the clouds come true, even though he makes a big sacrifice. So far, this video has been watched more than seven million times. To see these videos and the other winners, visit www.youtube.com/ytawards. You can decide which video you think is the best and take part in a very popular part of Internet culture.
HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
