YouTube to Be a Media Channel?

YouTube has launched a citizen journalism channel that could further blur the line between journalism and home videos.

The company believes YouTube Direct , a dedicated channel for citizen journalism, will better connect news organizations with user generated content, according to MediaWeek .

Nearly every major TV news organization already solicits user-generated video, and now YouTube hopes its channel will enable any news-oriented site to automatically become a hub for user-produced news videos.

It has already begun testing YouTube Direct with The Huffington Post , NPR.com, Politico.com and the Web sites for the San Francisco Chronicle and WHDH-TV / WLVI-TV in Boston, Mass.

"This is like a virtual assignment desk," said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. "When people think of citizen journalism, people think of YouTube. It's about community."

Some think YouTube Direct isn't necessary, however. Jared Newman writes on PC World , "The Internet and YouTube let you publish and broadcast yourself. You don't have to be some drone for ABC News or the Huffington Post. If you're doing amateur newscasts regularly, you can start your own blog and open your own section on YouTube, without giving those organizations the glory."

Last week YouTube announced it had increased the maximum resolution of video uploads to 1080p to accommodate higher-resolution consumer cameras and possibly make the videos more attractive to media outlets.