The YouTube-fication of media
It was just a matter of time until various professions started their own YouTube-like programming.
Now lawyers will be able to get into the act. ALM, a b-to-b media company targeting legal and business professionals, and the LegalTalkNetwork have announced the debut of Legal Channels, a new online video production and distribution service for law firms that includes a branded YouTube channel featuring law firms and attorney videos.
The two companies will provide law firms and attorneys with video-based marketing, including video planning, production and editing and online distribution. For law firms the channel will be a vehicle to highlight a practice area or provide insight on pending law suits, key court decisions or regulations. And corporate advertisers can target the channel to sell legal products or services.
“By coupling high-quality production with a new array of distribution options, law firms can cost-effectively showcase their talent, expertise and accomplishments to current and prospective clients,” said Jack Berkowitz, senior VP of ALM, in a statement.
YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion, has in the last few become a household term. So has “citizen journalism,” which has probably been around in one permutation or another since Benjamin Franklin launched The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1730.
But citizen journalism takes on a different edge in the digital age, what with more and more people reporting breaking news through video-enabled smartphones. YouTube is betting it can be a vehicle for citizen journalism with its new channel, “Citizen News.” According to Art Technica, the channel already has more than 70 YouTube citizen journalists, including “Texascountryreporter” (Oh, just think of the other possibilities in this realm.)
And how long before everyone and their brother fashion themselves the next Dan Rather (who, well before his unceremonious exit from CBS News, really knew how to immerse himself in breaking news). Earlier this year CNN introduced a citizen journalism initiative called iReport, which enables anyone to upload and discuss news from throughout the world. It’s a bit curio how the reputation of journalists is maybe one rung above used-car salesmen but in the digital age everybody seems to want to be a journalist (in one form or another).
Matthew Schwartz is Senior Editor of ScribeMedia.org and host of the WebTV series, From Print to Digital.
If “everyone and their brother” wants to and maybe can step into the role of journalist(at least onscreen), won’t that cost that ultimately weaken the genuine on-line and onscreen reporters? How to tell the manques from the McCoy?