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Kanye West Interrupts MTV’s Inaugural O Music Awards

KanyeModelsTweet

Yo, SocialTimes reader: I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Kanye West received his own category in MTV’s inaugural O Music Awards, which will be held April 28, as the newly added Best Tweet category features five entries, all of which come straight from the hip-hop superstar’s Twitter account.

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2011 MTV Movie Awards: Cast Your Votes

Voting for the 2011 MTV Movie Awards began Tuesday and will run through Tuesday, April 5, with fans able to vote in 13 categories and the top selections making the final list of nominees, which will then be voted on May 3-June 4.

The 20th annual 2011 MTV Movie Awards will air live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif., Sunday, June 5 at 9 p.m. ET.

The categories are: best movie (voting stays live throughout the ceremony), best comedic performance, best villain, best kiss, best fight, best male performance, best female performance, best female breakout star, best male breakout star, biggest badass star, best scared-as-shit performance, best jaw-dropping moment, and best line from a movie (new category).

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Winners Announced for First-Ever CNN iReport Awards

The winners of the inaugural edition of the CNN iReport Awards were announced Tuesday at the CNN Grill at the 2011 South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, by CNN.com participation director Lila King. They were:

Breaking News Coverage: Michael Roberts, early images of Deepwater Horizon fire;

Original Reporting: Percy von Lipinski, bison as pet;

Compelling Imagery (Photos or Video): Mugur Vărzariu, Abandon Valley;

Commentary: James Amerson, Dear Gulf, I’ll miss you;

Personal Story: Faithe Chu, My escape from Vietnam;

Interview: Tristan Macaraeg, 16-year-old interviews classmate on living in foster care;

Community Choice: Samantha Bolton; and

iReport Spirit Awards: Janie Lambert, Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere, Omékongo Dibinga, Shari Atukorala, and Sherbien Dacalanio.

The Webby Awards to Play Ball with MLB Advanced Media

Major League Baseball Advanced Media will leave the field and enter the events center, as the league’s interactive media and Internet arm reached an agreement to webcast the next two installments of The Webby Awards, starting with the 15th annual event June 13 in New York.

The Webby Awards and MLBAM will team up on a live, state-of-the-art, HD presentation of the ceremony, and viewers will be able to access in-progress highlights, interact on multiple screens via customized mobile phone and tablet apps, and follow what the two parties called “a tricked-out video stream.”

Nominees for the 15th Annual Webby Awards will be announced in April.

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After Downsizing, Huffington Post Media Group Staffs Up

Just two business days after it was out with the old at AOL and Huffington Post Media Group, it was in with the new, as the division created by the merger of AOL and The Huffington Post announced several new hires, including two high-profile additions — Twitter co-founder Biz Stone as strategic impact adviser, and veteran journalist John Montorio as culture and entertainment editor — as well as the promotion of HuffPost senior political editor Howard Fineman to editorial director for the group.

Huffington Post Media Group and AOL also announced the addition of two new neighborhoods in Newark to Patch, in partnership with that city’s Twitter-friendly Mayor Cory Booker, and the launch of its 30-Day Service Challenge employee volunteer initiative.

Stone will advise on social impact and cause-based initiatives, including the development of a platform to make it easier for people to perform services in their communities. He will also recruit other companies to invest in and deploy best corporate practices, and create and develop a video series spotlighting companies and executives that are stellar in philanthropy and corporate responsibility.

Montorio boasts more than 30 years of experience reporting, writing, editing, and managing news staffs, including stints with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

In his new role, Fineman will help shape Huffington Post Media Group’s overall coverage, as well as working to integrate AOL news and information brands. He will also guide coverage of the upcoming presidential campaign coverage, continuing to report for HuffPost, and retaining his role as an analyst for NBC and MSNBC.

Other new editorial hires across Huffington Post Media Group:

White House correspondent Jennifer Bendery, who had been covering The White House and House and Senate Leadership for Roll Call for the past three years;

Culture/style reporter Caroline Dworin, who had been a regular contributor to the City section of The New York Times and appeared in anthology More New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of The New York Times;

Workplace reporter Dave Jamieson, who formerly covered transportation issues for TBD;

General assignment writer Saki Knafo, who previously wrote for The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The Believer, GQ, and Publishers Weekly;

News editor Simone Landon, who had been producer of Morning Edition for Rhode Island Public Radio;

Real estate editor Catherine New, whose work has been published by The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Metro Newspaper, Flavorpill.com, Men’s Vogue, and Psychology Today;

And four new Jefferson young journalists: Katherine Bindley, who graduated from Georgetown University and was a regular contributor to The New York Times City section, as culture/style reporter; Laura Gottesdiener, who graduated from Yale University and was a staff writer for The Brooklyn Paper, as lifestyle reporter; Joy Resmovits, who graduated from Barnard College and has been at The Jewish Daily Forward since 2010, as education reporter; and Laura Stampler, who graduated from Stanford University and has written for The New Republic, The Nation, and The Miami Herald, as lifestyle reporter.

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Texas Tribune, Bay Citizen to Develop Open-Source Publishing Platform with $975K Grant from Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a $975,000 grant to be used by The Texas Tribune and The Bay Citizen to develop an open-source publishing platform for online news organizations to use free-of-charge.

The two nonprofit online news sources said the goals of the platform they will develop are to enable other online news organizations to engage with readers, manage content, and raise revenue, and the platform should be inexpensive to implement, yet flexible enough to keep up the pace with innovations in the industry.

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Lifetime’s Army Wives Teams Up with BroadCause to Help Real Army Wives

Lifetime Television‘s fictional Army Wives will help out real-life army wives and their families by teaming up with social-media aid organization BroadCause to donate $1 for every Tweet and Facebook post about the show this week to nonprofit organization Blue Star Families.

Blue Star Families was formed by a group of military spouses in 2008 to raise awareness of the challenges of military family life. The cable network will contribute up to $50,000.

The fifth season of Army Wives premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It will be followed by the debut of reality series Coming Home, in which U.S. armed forces service members’ surprise their families at reunions after serving long tours.

GetGlue Set to Check In to the Oscars

And the Oscar for best stickers created for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards goes to … GetGlue! The entertainment-based social network teamed up with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for Sunday night’s telecast on ABC (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), and GetGlue users who check in can receive special Oscars stickers.

GetGlue is also tied in with ABC’s Oscars Red Carpet Live, which airs one hour before the awards ceremony, and with the network’s Jimmy Kimmel Live post-Oscars show.

The First-Ever MTV O___ Music Awards (OMAs) Set for April 28

MTV announced an addition to its stable of awards shows: the O___ Music Awards (OMAs), recognizing creativity and technology in digital music. The inaugural event will be held Thursday, April 28, across multiple platforms, honoring artists, technology innovators, fans, and Web celebrities.

The OMAs will appear on MTV Music & Logo Group platforms including MTV.com, VH1.com, CMT.com, and LOGOTV.com, along with a major social-media presence.

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Royal Television Society Recognizes CNN’s South Africa 2010: Twitter Buzz

CNN‘s South Africa 2010: Twitter Buzz received an award in the category of Innovative News at the United Kingdom’s Royal Television Society Awards.

South Africa 2010: Twitter Buzz enabled fans following FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa to monitor and visualize Twitter activity, providing an interactive visualization of how many Tweets per minute each topic generated, as well as photos representing soccer topics generating the most buzz, which changed sizes as the number of related Tweets fluctuated. Categories included players, teams, and topics, and fans were able to browse back through an archive of Tweets from the past 24 hours.

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