DES MOINES, IA — Mediacom and C-SPAN announce the start of this year’s annual student documentary competition and encourage middle school and high school students to participate in the video documentary competition known as “StudentCam.” Students are asked to create a short video documentary and submit it online between Nov. 1 and Jan. 20, 2021.
This year marks the 17th Annual StudentCam competition, and the new topic for 2021 submissions is “Explore the issue you most want the president and new Congress to address in 2021.” Students are asked to analyze the current and/or historical significance of their chosen issue and include differing points of view. Participants present their views by creating a short video documentary, five to six minutes in length. Students can work in teams or individually to create their videos.
Cash prizes of up to $100,000 in total will be awarded to winning documentaries. Winners will be announced in March 2021 and the top-rated videos will be televised on C-SPAN in April 2021. In recent years, students from Aplington-Parkersburg, Cedar Falls, Urbandale, Dallas Center-Grimes, and Iowa City high schools created StudentCam documentaries that earned national recognition. Complete competition details and entry forms are available on the C-SPAN StudentCam website http://www.studentcam.org.
C-SPAN is a public service created and supported by the American cable television industry, including Mediacom. The public affairs networks operate commercial-free without government tax dollars, and Mediacom provides its video subscribers with access to all three C-SPAN networks.