YouTube: The New News

In this article, Jenkins runs through nine points about the importance of YouTube in our society today and from my perspective this site has become a replacement for the news. More and more people rely on YouTube as their news source. Point 3 talked about how YouTube is a site for amateurs to post their ideas that has gained more visibility than the cable channel news stations. Watching news stations is out dated. They are normally one-sided and people choose their preferred station based on whether the station caters to right or left wing audiences. Point 5 describes people who use this site as “citizen journalists”. Anyone can be newscasters these days. Anyone with the technological means to film and post a video can create the news. This means people have the ability to post things that they think are important for the audience to watch. In this way, YouTube is a young people’s version of ABC, CNN, or FOX. Jenkins also talked about how YouTube can influence the presidential race of 2008. Because this participatory culture is available it might encourage younger people to get involved with issues of politics that they normally would not. It provides an avenue of free speech and personal expression that allows kids to speak up and get their voices heard.