I don't Beliebe it!

14 January 2013

BU journalism student wins international competition to travel to Miami and meet Justin Bieber

A journalism student from Bournemouth University has won the chance to travel to Miami and meet teen pop sensation Justin Bieber.

Third year BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism student Joseph Kent beat entries from around the world to win the competition, run by Adidas NEO.

The prize includes an all-expenses paid trip to Miami at the end of the month, and the chance to meet Justin Bieber after one of his concerts.

Joseph, who will then blog about the experience, said: "It is the trip that I am more excited for - I have never been to Miami and it sounds amazing. I've already been checking the weather reports.

"The great thing is that I don't really have an opinion on Justin Bieber so I can go to the concert and form a justified opinion on him."

A keen fashion blogger through his site www.unlimitedbyjk.com, Joseph was contacted by the Adidas social media team and encouraged to enter.

To get through the first round of the competition, Joseph had to send in a photo of the face he would pull if he found out he had won.

"That took me ages," said Joseph, 21, who is from Woking and lives in Winton while studying.

"It was a mixture of surprise and disbelief, with a little glimmer of 'oh my gosh'. It took me a while of taking photos with myself to find a face that I was happy with.

"I'm sure it wasn't the face I actually pulled when I found out I'd won."

For the second round, entrants were sent a rucksack and then had to blog about what they would put in it for their trip to Miami.

Joseph created a stop motion video of the items - including his camera, spare lens, passport and shorthand notebook - magically appearing to put themselves in the bag to one of Justin Bieber's songs.

He said: "It took about two hours to shoot everything and about four hours to do all the editing but it was really fun to make."

Initially Joseph was told that he had come in third place, but technicalities meant that one of the winners could not take up the prize.

He was at university helping out with an Activity Day for prospective students when he found out he would be going to Miami after all.

"It came as a total surprise," he said.

"I was on my lunch break and checking my emails when I saw the one saying that I was going after all. I had to read it twice before I absorbed it.

"I think my jaw actually dropped and I started screaming and jumping up and down."

Joseph will be one of two bloggers reporting on the experience, and will travel to Miami on Friday 25th January.

He will stay at a hotel on Miami Beach and will see Justin Bieber's concert at the American Airlines Arena on the Saturday, before returning home on Sunday 27th January.

He will meet Justin following the concert, and hopes he will get the chance to interview the teen pop icon.

"If I have the chance to get a few words from him, I'm really interested to see what he thinks about the fact that there are his superfans who do really crazy things and then people who absolutely hate him.

"I want to see how that affects him and get his point of view."

Joseph added that his friends are proud of him winning the competition.

"My friends and coursemates have been saying that they are proud of me as I work so hard and that I deserve this. I feel quite overwhelmed by that."

You can watch the stop-motion video that Joseph created for the competition here

Photo courtesy of Silviu Doroftei.

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