YouTube brings media and citizen journalists together
YouTube has launched a new service called «YouTube Direct,» which is designed to make it easier for media outlets to access video footage from so-called «citizen journalists.» The tool allows newsrooms to request clips directly from users, review them, and publish them on their own websites.
In this way, the content produced by citizen journalists could be brought out of anonymity to a certain extent, a spokesperson for the German Journalists' Association (DJV) told the Pressetext.ch news service. This is an important step forward in terms of better verifiability and fact-checking. However, the DJV spokesperson is rather cautious about the status of the video portal as a news source. YouTube is predominantly an entertainment platform. People should not make the mistake of believing that they can keep up with the big news agencies. However, the site could play an important role in media reporting in exceptional situations, such as during the civil protests in Iran. The new service is still in the test phase. An initial test run has already been carried out with the Huffington Post.
