A new kind of visual news is emerging on YouTube. A recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that 39% of the most-watched video news on YouTube was produced by citizens who witnessed breaking news events. But news organizations also are using this still-new medium to reach viewers.

YouTube news offerings include both unedited footage uploaded by individuals and more traditional news videos edited by news organizations. Users of this platform view both styles of videos, depending on the news event.

In all, more than half (58%) of the most-viewed news videos were edited in some way before they were uploaded to YouTube.
Citizens were more likely to shoot and share raw footage. The majority (61%) of the most popular videos produced by individual users were made up of raw, unedited footage, while more than a third (39%) were edited. Read More

Topic
YouTube
Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.