Could YouTube Become A News Platform?

When we think about how we watch the news, in the past, we usually would turn it on the TV as soon as we would wake up in the morning, or look forward to the nightly news after a long day. Now, the way we consume our news is changing, and most people now are turning to the Internet when trying to keep up with what is happening in the world.

However, audiences are not just looking up articles and reading them online, they are also turning to YouTube to watch news clips. What's becoming more popular is actual news shows on YouTube – yes, you heard it right. YouTube is kind of becoming a "news network." I know that is a bit of a stretch, but there are more channels producing news, and because YouTube is a popular website, more people are turning to those channels for information. Some of these channels include The Philip DeFranco show, The Young Turks, Rebel Media, and a few others. Even InfoWars, to a small population, is considered a "news" channel and has become popular amongst the conservative crowd because of YouTube (unfortunately).

So why are news channels such as these successful on YouTube? Well, the biggest thing is accessibility. Anyone can go onto YouTube and catch up on current events. It does not require a subscription and you don't have to be regularly following the channel. One can tune in at anytime, and can access these segments easily on a mobile device or computer.

The other major aspect of presenting news on YouTube is that there is little corporate control. This means, YouTubers have the power to create their own content, which is why it is appealing to most people. The Young Turks executive producer and anchor, Cenk Uygur, said in an interview with The Guardian in 2010, there was no need to try to get on cable TV in order to gain an audience.

"Before if you got on CNN or ABC in America that was huge and that was the best thing, if you were a cable station it was great – they always bragged about 'Oh, we're in 72m homes'. Now I think, so what? YouTube is in every home."

Lastly, with this little control, Philip DeFranco can say almost whatever he wants to. What I like about DeFranco, even though he's not a true journalist, he presents information or a story to the audience first and then at the end, gives his opinion on a certain subject matter. He remains objective, but then gets to the real issue of the news at hand. I don't tune into him regularly, but I think he offers an audience an alternative way of consuming content. As long as YouTube stops demonetizing him, he should be able to keep doing his thing.