Citizen Kate

Citizen Kate is a digital comedy/reality series about a fictional citizen journalist named Kate on the actual presidential campaign trail that has been produced twice, first in 2008, again in 2016.

Citizen Kate interviewing John Edwards in 2007

In 2008, when Obama launched his presidency, Carey Lundin, the series creator who was the Creative Director at Adelstein & Associates, a political advertising firm and owner of Viva Lundin Productions, had written a pilot script and decided to make the titular character real. Kate Soglin, a young citizen journalist, gave us 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 filed 90 video reports about the presidential campaign and politics on her web site, CitizenKate.TV, YouTube, Verizon Fios, Brave New Films and other sites worldwide. That series had an estimated 1M+ views.

In 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) looking for truth, jobs and America's future. The show was put on hold due to the creators' husband sudden passing. The series starred Chicago improvisers Abby Vatterott and Kimberly Michelle Vaughn.

The new series had 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. he PSAs 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, Lundin commissioned Duffy Lyons, "The Butter Cow Lady of Iowa" and Iowa's most beloved person, to sculpt a Butter Head of Barack Obama. When it was presented to the future president two days before the caucus, it 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. Obama's campaign strategist, David Axelrod, joked that "it was the secret to his success." In fact, if Obama had lost Iowa he may not have won the presidency. Citizen Kate hadn't aired the video, but proceeded to air the video on her website CitizenKate.tv to seed blogs and to 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 interviewing Senator Dick Durbin

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
Citizen Kate at the 2007 Democratic Party of California convention

The original Citizen Kate, real name Kate Soglin, hails from Chicago, Illinois. 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]

Citizen Kate was a 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
  • On April 12, 2016 DNAInfo reported: Chicago-Created Web Series 'Citizen Kate' Reboots For 2016 Election Season
  • On April 18, 2016 The Columbia Chronicle said "Web series makes politics silly again"
  • On January 11, 2016, ReelChicago posted the audition for Citizen Kate which took on national proportions.
  • On October 3, 2008, Fox News Chicago Citizen Kate goes toe to toe with Chicago's toughest political newsman, Fox News Chicago's Jack Conaty.
  • On August 9, 2008, on Edwards and a blond.
  • On February 17, 2007, prezvid.com first reported on Citizen Kate and called her an Obama stalker.
  • On February 27, 2007, The Economist Global Technology Forum mentioned Citizen Kate as an original online video campaign focused on the presidential trail when they republished an article from the Chicago Tribune.
  • On April 5, 2007, Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis featured CitizenKate.tv as the "Website of the Day" commenting that Kate Soglin is "making noise" and acts "half Michael Moore" with her vblog.
  • On April 13, 2007, Citizen Kate was one of the YouTube Staff Picks of the Week.
  • On April 30, 2007, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Citizen Kate stole the show with her vigor and excitement during the John Edwards Press Conference at the California Democratic Convention.
  • On May 3, 2007, Total Buzz, The insiders' hotline to Orange County government and politics, mentioned Citizen Kate and her assets.
  • On May 4, 2007, prezvid.com noted that Citizen Kate charmed Senator Dodd and all candidates should let her "stalk them".
  • On May 7, 2007, The O'Reilly Digital Media Blog featured Citizen Kate as a blogger who embodied young citizens and poked fun at the self-importance of Big Media. It took about nine seconds of that blog posting for The LA Times Political Muscle Blog to blog about that blog and uncover Citizen Kate as a citizen journalist.
  • On May 16, 2007, Save the Robot by Chris Dahlen mentioned Citizen Kate's "Rocketboobs" in his article about the success of amateur entertainment online.
  • On May 18, 2007, Screen Magazine published the first interview with Citizen Kate titled "Reporting For Duty: What One Woman Is Doing With A Pair Of Juicy Couture Shoes, A Camera And A Dream".
  • On May 24, 2007, Politics Anyone? on Bakersfield.com sparked a conversation about Citizen Kate being the future of political journalism, calling her a "YouTube hottie" and "enterprising free-lance reporter".
  • On June 9, 2007, The Daily Kos notes that Citizen Kate got a surprisingly candid interview with Senator Chris Dodd.
  • On June 27, 2007, The Washington Post described Senator Chris Dodd as charmed and relaxed with Kate.
  • On June 29, 2007, The Press Enterprise of Southern California noted that Kate is a blogger helping to rewrite the political rules.
  • On July 10, 2007, PrezVid notes that the plucky Citizen Kate strikes out asking Hillary Clinton a question.
  • On July 15, 2007, TV Week called Citizen Kate a new way to hit unwired network viewers.
gollark: It's the part of the Copenhagen interpretation of ethics. If you aren't *sure* you're doing a bad thing, you aren't.
gollark: You can get adblocking on your phone, as you should do.
gollark: Just start having them.
gollark: You should have adblockers.
gollark: That does sound quite bad.

References
  1. "The Economist Global Technology Forum". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  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 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, April 5, 2007 in her Website of the Day section
  4. Reynolds, Will, Citizen Kate visits Springfield Archived 2007-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, 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 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  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
  • Citizen Kate 2008 Trailer
  • Citizen Kate 2016 Iowa intro episode
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