Citizen journalism on YouTube

We interviewed Turi Munthe, the CEO of Demotix in December. The company is bringing street journalism to mainstream media by showing user generated photography to Global clients. On the video side any company trying the same mode; will have some fierce competiton from YouTube. The channel has been showing some of the dramatic footage of the developments in Iran this month. This material has also been used by CNN. Images like these arrive quickly from the scene and are more widely accepted now. This is what Google says about it:

The images are grainy, often jerky and hard to follow (like most footage shot using hand-held cameras and cellphones), but the message is unmistakable: in the months since the disputed Iranian presidential election in June, the people of Iran have become fluent in the new language of citizen video reporting. What might have seemed an isolated moment immediately following the election, when we watched videos of Iranians marching, battling and even dying on the streets of Tehran, appears to have become an essential part of their struggle.

At YouTube, we have been watching week after week as new videos have appeared on the site within hours of every single protest or similar event reported from Iran in the past six months. Thousands of uploads have brought the fear and tension of these protests to YouTube, inviting millions of views around the world. It is as if the revolts that are taking place could not do so outside the eye of the camera