Cell-phone camera? Check. Flip camcorder? Check. Being in the right (wrong?) place at the right time? Check.
Congratulations! You now have what it takes to become the newest sensation since public access television made stars of Wayne and Garth — a citizen journalist!
And YouTube has made it easier than ever for you to share your news with the rest of the world. This week they launched YouTube’s Reporters’ Center, a channel just for citizen journalists.
The site offers reporting tips from seasoned veterans such as famed investigative reporter Bob Woodward (for you youngsters out there, Google “Watergate“), CBS News’ Katie Couric (though I still miss her on Today) and The New York Times’ Nick Kristof (winner of two Pulitzers and the subject of the film Reporter, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year).
The channel bills itself as a “new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.” It also may be another seismic shift in how the news is covered, distributed and consumed. Stay tuned!
