News from YouTube

Newspapers was the staple and the original source for news since time immemorial. Even before TVs and computers, news used to be delivered to houses through papers. Since then, the source of news have expanded to such a degree that there are way too many to keep a track on. Ever thought that it sometimes becomes such a hassle to keep an eye on so many places just because one is interested in the news. This is where we turn to YouTube because it is one place which houses all sorts of channels which obviously includes news channels also. Subscribing to the subcategories of news will allow YouTube to gather all news from various places and present it in a collective format for us. Furthermore, if someone felt like they saw some important piece of information and would like to see it again but not waste more of their precious mobile data and also, they do not care for the video, the option of converting YouTube to mp3 exists. This will allow the news piece to become a podcast and it would easier to listen to it again. Around a quarter of U.S. adults, or roughly 26%, have been noted to get their news by watching YouTube videos, according to a new study from Pew Research Center, which examined the Google-owned video platform’s growing influence over news distribution in the U.S., as well as its consumption. The study, not surprisingly, found that established news organizations no longer have full control over the news Americans watch, as only one-in-five YouTube consumers (23%) said they “often” get their news from channels affiliated with established news organizations. The exact same percentage said they “often” get their news from independent channels instead.

A Study

Over the past couple of years, it can be said that there has been a major shift. The shift has been from TV to YouTube. Major news corporations would not want to let go this shift. So almost all of them have YouTube channels also so that any news you think you will get on your television is available on YouTube also. This study found that a majority, or 72%, of Americans said YouTube was either an important (59%) or the most important (13%) way they get their news. Most also said they did not see any big issues with getting their news from the site, but they did express some moderate concern about misinformation, political bias, YouTube’s demonetization practices and censorship. A second part of the research involved content analysis of the 377 most popular YouTube news channels in November 2019 and the content of YouTube videos published by the 100 channels with the highest median of views in December 2019. This was performed by a combination of humans and computational methods.

Consequence/Impact

YouTube being the platform it is, also contains various niches which cannot be found otherwise in large news channels. A growing trend has always been how YouTube has allowed for various newcomers and single individuals put forth their opinions without having them subsided by big corporations. This has attracted even more people to pay attention thus increasing the spread of information. Independent channels were also about twice as likely as established news organizations to present the news with a negative tone.