Misinformation is almost a given when it comes to breaking news. Citizen journalism and eyewitness accounts are often riddled with honest confusion, exaggerations and flat out lies, making it extremely difficult for those seeking to stay on top of a developing story to discern legitimate news from general misinformation, trolling and even hoaxes.
To help wade through the sea of eyewitness news, YouTube has partnered with social news agency Storyful to create a curated and verified feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day.
YouTube Newswire will feature global and regional feeds that have been verified by Storyful’s team of editors.
Olivia Ma, Head of Strategy and Operations, News Lab at Google, said they hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories.
Storyful added that that noise and the need for curation have never been greater, much like their team’s commitment to creating the best social journalism. When the company started working with YouTube in 2011, 48 hours of video were uploaded to the site every minute. That figure has since swelled to 300 hours per minute.
The service is geared more towards news agencies looking to supplement their coverage with eyewitness accounts. That of course doesn’t mean the average Joe will be turned away as clips will be embeddable from the original sources and can be viewed online, on Twitter or delivered to your inbox via daily newsletter.
The partnership should benefit all parties involved, especially YouTube. The popular video sharing site has been met with stiff competition as it relates to citizen journalism through the recent launches of livestreaming video apps Meerkat and Periscope.
