Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Katie Couric: 4 out of 5? Not bad, Katie, not bad. But where's the love?

What does YouTube bring to journalism?

Katie Couric offered an overview in a video celebrating 5 years of YouTube without referring to us here at Zennie's
"I commend all the citizen journalists who are showing us their realities and proving that even Burma, China, or Africa can be just a click away."
~Katie Couric
OK, I'll take that, even though I put a lot less on YouTube than Zennie does. We've been commended, but we didn't make her list. Well, what I mean is, he didn't make it. I'm not surprised that I didn't make it, I use YouTube as a sort of incidental tool.

Zennie, though? Zennie has been partnering with YouTube and attracting the kind of discussions in the reply area that built traffic from the start.

"Raising awareness of human rights abuses and providing first hand accounts of conflicts and catastrophes moments after they strike."
~Katie Couric
She came up with a list of five pieces she thinks are demonstrative of how YouTube can be a catalyst for change.

Actually, it's a pretty good list. Who in the U.S. can forget Virginia Senator George Allen's infamous "Macaca" comment? That certainly put politicians on notice. She included the 2007 anti-government protests in Burma, the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province in China, and the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan during the Iranian election protests in 2009.

Four entirely exemplary videos.

But footage of a lion attacking a water buffalo on the Africa plain? Is that really more important to the story of YouTube than, say, interviews with Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, or footage from Obama's campaign and the convention that nominated him?






Come on, Ms. Couric - where's the love?

What does YouTube bring to your view of the world?


Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, political staffer, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community. He's been contributing here at Zennie's since prior to the Democrat's National Convention in Denver that nominated our current President in August of 2008, and hereby officially totally apologizes to Zennie for not doing more video -- for real :)

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