http://www.moveyourass.tv

[image:194,left]You don’t need many words to explain the function of Move your ass.tv. The Dutch media portal is exactly what it says. Encouraging young people to undertake action in making the world a better place. By informing, explaining and giving helpful tips. And they made the impossible possible by doing it in a really cool format. With 30.000 visitors a month, 50 articles and more than 100 video reports made, they are a fresh breeze through the foggy and dull landscape of ‘doing good’ sites.

With really fun animations and graphics, made by students of de School for Graphic Design, the makers of the web portal Move Your Ass.tv wanted to make an accessible site for young people in the Netherlands. Making fun of the everyday hypocrisy of politics and the free market they developed a short course of ‘how to make this world a better place’, simplifying things in a very ironic way. You can also find weblogs of inspiring young people in the ‘Move your ass café’: people who are doing practical work in an underdeveloped country, who are making independent media worldwide or are simply working on a great initiative in Holland. There are also lots of tips and tricks to start moving your ass immediately and some hilarious games to play.

[image:195,right]That’s the fun part of the site. Because when you dive a bit under the surface you find a database, video reports and most important: a stubborn and critical medium that doesn’t get of the back of politicians. The database is filled with recent and relevant articles about subjects like politics and human rights, health, art and culture, nature and environment, and economics and trade. To keep things light-hearted there is also a category called ‘pigheaded articles’, for texts that seem to be unclassifiable. The background information concerning these articles can also be found on the site along with some book reviews.

The video reports are presented in different variations. First of all MYA is sending a team of young reporters to a continent every year – until now they went to Latin America and Africa – to find out what kind of projects are undertaken there to close the famous gap. Their encounters with interesting people, projects and places are all filmed and put on the site in streaming video. Secondly the MYA team visits meetings, summits and conventions and asks the questions that no one dares to ask. In a playful – and disguised as unprofessional – way they interview ministers, secretaries of state and high United Nations commissioners about the Kyoto resolution or the Millennium Goals.

Especially these Millennium Goals, that have been shoved under the carpet by the mainstream media, made the producers of MYA decide to start a campaign to give them fame and popularity. Not only do they criticize the ministers responsible for taking the necessary measures concerning these goals, but also do they encourage their viewers to make animations and clips about the goals and to undertake action to raise money and awareness for the great challenge of achieving these goals. Their sad conclusion is that the goals – 191 UN member states promised to knock down the inequality in the world by 2015 – are not only unachievable, but also completely unknown by the public.

Move your ass.tv has been visited more than 400.000 times, and has a lot of exposure in the mainstream hip and trendy media. The platform is colourful and playful but nonetheless intelligent: despite the funny stuff, the visitor is taken seriously. But to make UN resolutions cool, that could really be the greatest achievement of Move your ass.tv

By Elda Dorren / Engage! Tactical Media