YouTube teams with local TV station

As speculated a few weeks ago, YouTube announced today a citizen journalism partnership with KGO-TV — the first-ever partnership with a local TV station. In essence, it’s a new application of YouTube Direct, which gives publishers the ability to use YouTube to power video uploads. Called ABC7 uReport, it integrates a map with [...]

iPhones about to become live cameras

Qik is close to launching an iPhone app that will allow you to stream live video from your phone with a touch of the button. Video demo…

As you might imagine, this will be big. The challenge, of course, is how to organize all these streams into useful and entertaining experiences.

CNN iReport post taken way too seriously

Years ago at KING5.com, I launched the site’s first blog with (gasp!) open comments. What if, I was asked, someone posts something that’s untrue? After all, that comment would be connected, although indirectly, to the KING 5 brand. Well, I responded, our readers are smart enough to know that user comments aren’t [...]

A look at CBS’ citizen journalism iPhone app

I’ve been playing with “CBS EyeMobile,” a new iPhone application (iTunes link) from CBS News, built by Seattle’s Treemo Labs. You can submit photos straight from your iPhone, and browse photos and video clips uploaded by other citizen reporters. As you may know, you can’t shoot video from your iPhone unless you’ve hacked it. (Like many iPhone users, I’m waiting for Apple to unlock the phone’s video capability, both recorded and live.) “Soon we will be able to broadcast anything live from the street, essentially becoming walking televisions,” said Jeff Sellinger, GM of CBS Mobile.

As of this writing on EyeMobile, I see a photo from Yankee Stadium’s final night, a choppy video clip of Obama at the University of Miami and a bunch of other random stuff, including some guy drinking a beer. Regardless of what people are posting so far, mobile devices are clearly the platform for citizen newsgathering, and an iPhone application is a logical funnel. The challenge, of course, is how to organize the avalanche of citizen “news” that is to come — and how affiliates fit into this picture. Press release follows below…

YouTube’s first citizen journalism contest

In a partnership with the Pulitzer Center, YouTube has launched a video citizen journalism contest with a $10,000 fellowship as the grand prize. Sponsors include Sony and Intel.

CNN to hold iReport ‘film festival’

CNN’s iReport.com is encouraging videographers to submit short films about the 2008 campaign. “Put your creativity to the test and give us a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes whether you are organizing in your community or following the campaign,” reads the entry description. Winners will receive a trip to D.C. [...]

New citizen journalism site AllVoices launches

AllVoices.com bills itself as “the first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere.” You can send in reports via voice, email, SMS or MMS, and it’s pinpointed on a large map on the home page. But instead of just relying on citizen journalists to send in all the news, AllVoices also [...]