[July 28, 2015] |
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Panasonic Announces Seven Grand Prix Finalists for Kid Witness News Global Contest 2015
Panasonic (News - Alert) Corporation today announced the seven finalist schools
representing seven countries for the Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN)
2015 Global Contest. The Grand Prix winner will be selected from among
them and announced on August 26 at the KWN Global Awards Ceremony in
Singapore. This is the first global awards ceremony to be held in
Southeast Asia.
KWN is a hands-on video education program that Panasonic operates as
part of its efforts to support education of future generations and is
currently being promoted in 19 countries and regions. The company
provides video cameras and other equipment for video productions to
elementary and middle schools participating in the program. The KWN
program is also a competition that honors the video works created by
children every year. To produce videos, students choose a theme on their
own and handle everything from planning and scripting to filming and
editing. Currently, some 5,000 children and teachers around the world
are taking part in the program. The program, which began in the United
States in 1989, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, and more than
170,000 children have participated to date.
This year's KWN Global Contest saw 553 schools from 19 countries and
regions take part in the program by submitting five-minute videos. Under
the broad theme of either communication or ecology, the videos focused
on issues closely linked to children's lives through the eyes of
children, such as the impact and interactions through social media,
environmental issues, earthquake disasters and interactions with family
members or physically challenged individuals. Synopses of the seven
Grand Prix nominees are shown on the following page.
This year's seven finalist videos can be viewed on the official website
for the KWN Global Contest 2015 at: http://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/kwn/contest2015/
Related URLs:
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Summary of the seven finalist videos
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(Listed by country in alphabetical order)
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Country/Name of School
Video Title
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Theme Category/Synopsis (News - Alert)
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1
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China
Beijing Haidian Wanquan Primary School
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Communication:
A girl, who lost her mother, lives with her father, stepmother and
stepsister. She feels she doesn't belong to the family as no one
celebrates her birthday. The video appeals the importance of
providing children with love and affection of the family.
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Happy Birthday
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2
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Germany
Secondary School Isernhagen
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Communication:
This documentary focusing on a traveling circus family shows their
unique lifestyle, different from that of ordinary people, through
daily lives of circus performers and their children, and backstage
scenes.
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Living Differently - Circus Mulan
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3
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Japan
Nakoso 1st Junior High School
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Communication:
Fukushima is still under the influence of Great East Japan
Earthquake that hit the area four years ago. Middle school
students in the region learn the importance of connecting with
others through participation in a charity relay marathon in Tokyo
and activities to support Fukushima.
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Run! Nako-ichi Run!…
for Fukushima
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4
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Malaysia
Benoni Secondary School Papar, Sabah, Malaysia
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Communication:
A teenage girl gradually gets addicted to taking selfies with her
mobile phone, spending many hours every day. That leads to a
drastic change in her personality, then results in an incident.
The video conveys a message that you should accept the way you
are, not how you look in photos.
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JUST CLICK IT
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5
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Singapore
Clementi Town Secondary School
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Communication:
The video shows interviews with students and college professors,
exploring how people perceive their self-worth through their
persona on social media. It warns against putting too much focus
on social media. The video combines animation and live action.
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Social ME-dia
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6
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Thailand
Montfort College
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Communication:
A visually impaired girl attends a non-special-needs school and,
while worrying about burdening other students, she overcomes
struggles at school and eventually accepts herself and achieves
academic results with her friends' support.
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Blind's Diary
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7
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United States of America
Val Verde High School
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Communication:
A teenage girl goes through a mysterious experience while falling
in love with a boy whom she met through SNS. The video brings
awareness to the dangers of friendship social networking sites,
with which many teenagers are obsessed.
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FACE TO FACE
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About Panasonic Kid Witness News
KWN got its start in 1989 in the U.S. as a hands-on video education
program supported by Panasonic North America, which supplied video
cameras and editing equipment to public elementary and middle schools to
make news programs from the perspective of children. The program was
subsequently expanded on a global scale. At present, 553 schools from 19
countries and regions participate in the program.
KWN is designed to foster creativity and presentation skills among young
students. Supervising teachers cite further merits of the program such
as a heightened awareness of the environment and the community as well
as development of team skills among participants through the process of
creating videos. The global network of KWN schools also provides a
platform for international exchange among KWN students.
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19 countries and regions participating in KWN
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(Countries listed in alphabetical order)
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North America
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Canada, United States
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Central and South America
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Chile
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Europe
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Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia
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Middle and Near East
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Iraq, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates
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Asia
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China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam
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Oceania
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New Zealand
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About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development of
diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the
consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions and
device industries. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded
globally and now operates 468 subsidiaries and 94 associated companies
worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.715 trillion yen for
the year ended March 31, 2015. Committed to pursuing new value through
innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to
create a better life and a better world for its customers. To learn more
about Panasonic: http://www.panasonic.com/global
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150727006417/en/
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