Google’s YouTube has announced a citizen journalism partnership with KGO-TV, its first-ever partnership with a local TV station. The partnership employs a new version of YouTube Direct that gives content distributors and amateur video publishers the ability to use YouTube to facilitate video uploads.
Called ABC7 uReport, the new service integrates a map with YouTube videos spanning breaking news, events, weather and Bay Area scenes.
“This is a project that aims to cover the San Francisco Bay Area as comprehensively as possible using citizen reported news, videos and photos,” Oliva Ma, YouTube’s news manager, told Lost Remote. “All Bay Area residents are invited to participate in the project by documenting the news and events happening around them.”
YouTube is helping seed the effort by reaching out to active users and bloggers in the area. KGO-TV plans to air the best video from its television broadcasts.
The KGO partnership with YouTube, if successful, will be pitched to TV stations across the country. YouTube is already experimenting with geolocation and “news near you” projects on its website.
