The Genesis of YouTube Journalism is Happening Right Before Our Eyes
This week we spoke about the dissemination of news on social media platforms and The Media Bias Chart. Where do YouTube journalists fit in this chart and taxonomy of skewed news? Let’s discuss.
Vox was launched at Vox Media in 2014 by founders Ezra Klein, Melissa Bell, and Matthew Yglesias.
Vox regularly uploads newsworthy and journalistic content to its YouTube channel. For a media company born in the digital age, where do they fit in on the Media Bias Chart? Well luckily for Vox, they are considered an established news source and already appear on the chart under “skews left” but is “mostly analysis or mix of fact reporting and analysis.”
Diving a little bit deeper, I found that Vox Media and New York Media merged around two years ago on September 24, 2019.
Fortunately for Vox, their YouTube Channel isn’t the only form of delivering news content that they offer. But what about for those creators / journalists / news commentators who primarily and maybe even only use the video platform? Let’s take a look.
Philip DeFranco regards himself as “the news guy” per his Twitter bio, and has been creating news commentary videos since 2007, so let’s take a look at his content.
I would rank DeFranco’s channel similar to that of “Cuomo Prime Time” hosted by Chris Cuomo on CNN: Hyper-Partisan Left and Analysis OR High Variation in Reliability and News with a POV. I say this because
DeFranco cites other news sources to back up his claims or commentary, which can be important for some because he does editorialize on his show.
I looked into the story of psychics claiming to channel Gabby Petito’s spirit to see if any news outlets covered it. The New York Post wrote a story, and from the first sentence alone, it too in a way was editorialized by using certain adjectives to describe these psychics.
“Self-proclaimed”, “sick ploy”, “so-called”, etc. From a common sense standpoint, using the adjective “self-proclaimed” next to “psychic” holds no bearings as that implies that there is some entity that decides who is truly a psychic or not (which there is no such entity, all psychics are self-proclaimed). This usage of the adjective implies that the writer too doesn’t believe these claims and is inadversley giving their opinion. Except for in editorial pieces, it never matters what the writer thinks about the situation.
Insider takes a more objective approach in writing about the same story and even gives an example of how psychics have been employed by governmental agencies in the past to solve cases, but also how it can hinder investigations. However they do use the adjective “self-touted” which has a negative connotation meaning:
So why is any of this important when discussing journalism on YouTube?
DeFranco himself proclaims that he covers news that matters to him and should matter to us, the audience, too.
Is this approach that different when talking about mainstream media companies such as ABC News, owned by The Walt Disney Company that can influence the stories that get covered or the angles taken?
In this instance, can’t YouTube journalists be just as trustworthy as the mainstream, as long as they use relevant sources and defend their claims with factual evidence?
Let’s take a look at another channel that is similar to DeFranco’s and openly takes a “progressive approach” to its reporting style, commentary, and news analysis, as described in the channel’s introductory video featured on the home page.
“The Ring of Fire” YouTube channel is similar to DeFranco’s in that it is mostly analytical news commentary with some reliability. Unlike DeFranco’s channel however, short videos are posted every few hours, sort of like the CNN-coined style of hourly updates on cable TV.
Host Farron Cousins stands in front of a world map green screen and gives a voluble energy to the audience on events and stories him and the team at ROF decide are newsworthy. I would describe this channel as Most Extreme Left and Analysis OR High Variation in Reliability and News with a POV.
We have spoken about news audiences in this class and others and that is especially important with the rise of news reporting on YouTube. The channels we have spoken about so far tend to appeal to certain audiences, and don’t seem to have an intention to reach a diverse, general audience like traditional journalists attempt to do in carrying out objectivity and practicing unbiased reporting.
In an age where journalists are increasingly having the dilemma of sharing their opinions and perspectives, these channels are creating a new medium for future journalists.
Will sharing opinions, but remaining objective on the job, maybe become to the new norm in journalism one day?
I have one last channel to introduce that I find to fit the description of YouTube journalism as well.
SL04N is a YouTube channel created by Michael Sloan Hooks in Dec. 2019 is another news and pop culture commentator on YouTube.
His content appears sensationationalistic from the thumbnails, but if you know YouTube, eye-catching thumbnails are one of the most important factors in growing an audience. Video thumbnails and titles for YouTube videos are the equivalent to headlines of a traditional article: what will catch the reader’s attention.
I have been watching this channel for a few months and from what I have gathered, Hooks does a fair job in reporting the facts of news events although he does usually take a stance and share his opinion with his audience.
He also gives timely updates on stories like a traditional journalist would with breaking news events that require updates every time new information comes out which is the principle behind investigative journalism.
On the Media Bias Chart, I would rank his channel as Hyper-Partisan Left and Analysis OR High Variation in Reliability and satire.
Here is a quick summary:
The similarties in the rankings should come as no surprise because this is the dawn of a new age in journalism. Citizen journalists on YouTube can learn the journalistic skills and grow their audience in an organic never-before-seen way. With more journalism students in training to use social media and be able to create visual content (us!), we could truly be witnessing the genesis of a new age of journalism.
