YouTube Direct video upload for citizen journalists launched

YouTube Direct, a YouTube service that allows you to directly send video clips to news website editors, has been launched. YouTube Direct has already roped in Huffington Post, Politico, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR for the service.

Youtube Direct enables citizen journalism

Currently, many news websites accept videos from so-called “citizen journalists”. The average Joe can upload newsy and interesting videos he shot to the websites of many newspapers and magazines. YouTube Direct takes this a step ahead. YouTube Direct is a tool for citizen journos to upload clips to the editors of websites for uploads and for the editors to accept and manage them.

A small, customisable YouTube Direct tool can be embedded on the webpage. Visitors to the website can upload their videos from the webpage itself. At the website, an editor accesses a YouTube Direct console, where he can sort, view and clear the videos for publication on the website. Through the YouTube Direct tool, website editors can also request and assign specific videos.

YouTube is also planning to tie up with more websites for YouTube Direct. Already, YouTube is used by thousands of net-savvy citizens across the globe to bring their videos to the world’s notice. Websites like CNN and Fox News already offer tools for users to upload videos. YouTube Direct is expected to help news websites get more videos from those who don’t use YouTube. Due to the large number of people who own mobile phones with cameras and video recording capabilities, reporting has seen a huge spurt of citizen-journalist videos taken and publicised by the general public. Obviously, television cameras and reporters cannot be everywhere, and the originator of content is increasingly your average Joe.

YouTube feels that people around the world are taking up cameras and camera phones, covering news. People send in videos of hurricanes, subway mishaps, local political rallies and festivities that big media may not be able to access. “YouTube Direct empowers news and media organisations to easily connect with these citizen reporters, and use the power of our platform to cover the news better than ever before,” said YouTube head of news and politics, Steve Grove.

YouTube is already the most popular video website in the world. YouTube, which was started by three internet entrepreneurs, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim in February 2005 was acquired by Google in November 2006 for $1.6 billion. Despite millions of visitors daily, Google has found it difficult to make it profitable. Post-Youtube acquisition, Google gave up on its own competing service Google Video and focused entirely on Youtube. Recently, the company has unveiled some revenue sharing plans with select content creators.