YouTube Direct: Why Citizen Journalists Shouldn't Care

PC World on YouTube Direct, launched yesterday and which enables amateur videographers and reporters to upload their footage to news Web sites.

For the mass media, it's a great tool. They get first-hand footage of breaking news without even having to look for it, probably for free (YouTube says the news sites can work out their own terms of service, which I assume would include the right to publish, transmit, re-publish, and so on). Precious time and money is saved.

What's in it for the so-called citizen journalist? Not much, unless you're still clinging to the idea that getting your name and 15-second video clip on a news Web site or broadcast is a big deal.

... YouTube Direct is a nice gesture from Google to the mainstream media. It's an attempt to connect news organizations to the citizen journalists they secretly loathe, but it assumes, falsely, that those citizen journalists need the news organizations in the first place.

emily | 8:51 AM | Citizens as Camera Phone Reporters, YouTube and other User Generated Video Sites |
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