Yahoo to recruit citizen video-journalists for new user-generated news video service
Sources involved in discussions with Yahoo News said the project, which has been in development for months, will introduce an upload capability that will take the PC out of the connectivity loop, so amateur video journalists can upload footage directly from the location of the event.
Yahoo’s reaching out to amateur video enthusiasts is but the latest illustration of “disruption in the news business,” as Jay Rosen describes in “Web Users Open the Gates":
On the day the Indian Ocean tsunami struck, Reuters had 2,300 journalists and 1,000 stringers positioned around the world, according to the firm's chief executive, Tom Glocer. But none of them were on the beaches to witness the disaster...
The amateurs were there and they were prepared. "So for the first 24 hours the best and the only photos and video came from tourists armed with 1.3 megapixel portable telephones, digital cameras and camcorders. And if you didn't have those pictures you weren't on the story," Glocer said. Reuters, a wire service, had to recognize there are more people in the press zone now -- and integrate their material into its report. That should make us better, he said, but "you have to be open to both amateur and professional to tell the story completely."
FOR MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA SEE: "Social freeloaders: Is there a collective wisdom and can the Web obtain it?"