YouTube's journalism primers

5 Comments

by: Canines

There has been discussion on ColoradoPols previously about how bloggers can better fill the journalistic void caused by the loss of daily newspapers. Lately, YouTube has been producing videos designed to better educate citizen journalists:

As one web site (http://www.ejc.net) puts it:

YouTube’s other journalistic initiative is the launch of its new Reporter’s Center, which posts videos and guides from top American journalists.

Some of the current videos in the new channel include CBS News’ Katie Couric explaining how to conduct a good interview, NPR’s Scott Simon on how to tell a good story and The Associated Press Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier on how to do “watchdog” journalism.

The videos tend to be short, simple guides in laypman’s language about how to report on the news. The videos are no substitute for actual journalism school, but they provide helpful hints and tricks on how to do reporting.

Just checked out a decent short video on fact checking, myself.

Hope YouTube helps you, too.

5 thoughts on “YouTube’s journalism primers”

Chef says:

August 18, 2009 at 8:31 am

Okay, so “newspapers” must be continually generating more and more profit to compete with the internet, in order to make their share-holders happy. Regular steady profit is no longer sufficient; you have to be generating an ever rising chart.

Why not take them non-profit if greed has successfully overwhelmed good taste or intelligence?

At any rate, the internet sources don’t do anything other than cull from the wires and sites like Examiner.com are no more than places for corporations to pimp talentless wanna be hacks who want to be neighborhood celebrities for $2.50 per month. YouTube is a cute time-waster for those wanting to waste their gray matter on who can break the world record for non-stop farting or show you how my pet llama can open a beer can with its teeth.

Public education has been under attack ever since Nixon, as has health care, as has responsible intelligent journalism. If you want real news reporting and competent writing there are 4-5 good papers still out there.

That’s it. YouTube is no more journalism than I’d laughingly have the clap for a millennia. And don’t copy me, Sirota.

Log in to Reply
1. johne says:
  
  August 18, 2009 at 4:49 pm
  
  what are those 4-5 in your estimation? I can probably guess at 2 of them but even those aren’t perfect.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Fidel's dirt nap says:
    
    August 19, 2009 at 11:05 pm
    
    but I can’t live without the Economist. Great stuff in a sea of mindless crap.
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Canines says:
  
  August 18, 2009 at 4:57 pm
  
  It’s a medium, like TV, that can host journalism. TV hosts some fine journalism; it also hosts, for example, shows on eating worms in order to win prizes.
  
  Seems like YouTube is trying to raise its profile by actively seeking to host content that newspapers and other news organizations generate. That was the first part of the report, from which I quoted above.
  
  As for the tutorials for citizen journalists that it’s solicited from media professionals, here’s what BNET.com had to say:
  
  Bob Woodward and Arianna Huffington also make appearances. For a site best known as the online equivalent of “The Gong Show,” this endeavor seems quite highbrow. But at a time when actual paid journalists are falling by the wayside and citizen journalists are out there by the thousands, it’s also not a bad idea, and not just because it provides a funnel to YouTube’s news channel, or because it appears to have advertisers, which are still a relatively scarce commodity on YouTube.
  
  Though I hardly want my news to always come from people whose journalism education consists of watching Bob Woodward’s five-minute video on investigative journalism, having some basic information out there is certainly better than the alternative. The citizen journalists are here to stay, whether the news establishment wants them to stick around or not. You also have to wonder, if – given the attention that has been paid lately to the role of Twitter in breaking news – this is YouTube’s way of reminding aspiring citizen journalists that its site is a great place to upload news.
  
  Log in to Reply
3. DavidThi808 says:
  
  August 19, 2009 at 6:24 am
  
  All approaches to reporting have pluses and minuses. The MSM gave us the reporting on Watergate, but it also gave us Judith Miller regurgitating utter B.S. on Iraq and Dan Rather using clearly forged documents.
  
  And the bottom line is that the newspaper business did not evolve but instead tried to keep their model from the 1950’s – forever. They committed suicide.
  
  Log in to Reply