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Try this at home

YouTube has launched a training hub for journalists who want to learn from the…

by Andrew Potter on Monday, June 29, 2009 12:50pm - 17 Comments

YouTube has launched a training hub for journalists who want to learn from the best in the business. It features short video tutorials including Katie Couric on how to interview, Nicholas Kristof on covering a global crisis, and Arianna Huffington on citizen (i.e. “unpaid”) journalism. Her accent kills me:

Tags: journalism, youtube

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phil

I know! Accents are SOOOOO FUNNY!!
http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

"The ability to commit acts of journalism is spreading…"

Sounds downright lewd.
http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

The most important rule of citizen journalism?

Have a real job.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jandrewpotter andrew potter

especially if you want to work for HuffPo, where they don't pay for content as a matter of principle.

Two Hats

"they don't pay for content" Andrew, can you unpack this a little more for those of not familiar with the inner workings of the place? Do they not pay at all, or is it a revenue/profit/pageview based compensation (which may currently, but not necessarily, amount to squat)? I don't know how a model based on unpaid content providers can be any more sustainable than free content to begin with; it just shifts the burden down the production line…

http://intensedebate.com/people/jandrewpotter andrew potter

My understanding is that HuffPo has 60 paid employees, only five of whom work on the content side as editors — writing heds, selecting stories, and so on. None of the writers are paid, as far as I know; NPR had a show on the changing world of journalism a while ago, I recall someone saying that Huffington's mantra is "we don't pay for content," or something like that.

http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

If you're not one of their few paid hacks, you do not receive any cash as all for writing. Heard a piece on CBC Sunday (radio) yesterday about citizen journalism, and that was mentioned. Like all economic models, it will be sustainable for only the top few where they can at least offer some "prestige' to the writers.

john g

Oh come on. The Huffington Post is the liberal equivalent to Bill O'Reilly or the Drudge Report. They don't pretend to be anything other than a liberal propaganda outlet. They were the ones who ran with the "Sarah Palin is not Trig's mother" nonsense.

These sound more like the case studies to avoid, not to emulate.

Anon

Read first dear. Then comment.
André

The beauty of it is you can send your own content and balance their bias with your perfectly crafted sense of anarchism.

Anon

I'm not sure mocking the imminently mockable citizen journalist is what the lazy msm with its failing financial model should be doing at this juncture. It only makes TPM laugh louder.

Some of us "citizens" aren't stupid, you know. Food for thought.

http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

Stupid? No, just the ones that write for free expecting to get paid, eventually.
Even bloggers have to eat, sometimes. There's only so much "click" advertising to go around.

Anon

I think few of them expect to be paid eventually. I think the satisfaction of demonstrating just how anyone with a high school education could do *most* of a journalist does (in fact, in the past, that's all you needed) is probably worth it. All they're missing really is access and contacts. If public interest requires a courtier class like that, we're better off looking elsewhere.

I'm not cheering the demise of professional, paid journalism. I'm just observing how the profession lurches from bad to worse as its decline progresses. It's morbidly fascinating.

http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

"anyone with a high school education could do *most* of a journalist does"

It's a nice thought…but no, it's really not true. In a world without editors, without factchecking and without sources, very few bloggers ever get past the Journo 101 stage. Without legal training, police procedure training and learning how to take a decent picture, you are an amateur.

Reporters were never a courtier class. Most of us (I was one, for many years) made crap money, worked long hours and did it because we could make a difference. Most journos work for small papers, the ones that actually give you local news, the kind you don't see on the net.

I used to have people tell me "hey, I can do what you can do, no problem".
So I'd send them out to cover a town council meeting. If they made it through the meeting, they never managed to write something I could publish.

Work on a blog, reporting news you've gathered, not analyzing news someone else gathered. Do it for 5 years, full time. If you're still alive, then you can do what I did.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

"anyone with a high school education could do *most* of a journalist does"

It's a nice thought…but no, it's really not true. In a world without editors, without factchecking and without sources, very few bloggers ever get past the Journo 101 stage. Without legal training, police procedure training and learning how to take a decent picture, you are an amateur.

Reporters were never a courtier class. Most of us (I was one, for many years) made crap money, worked long hours and did it because we could make a difference. Most journos work for small papers, the ones that actually give you local news, the kind you don't see on the net.

I used to have people tell me "hey, I can do what you can do, no problem".
So I'd send them out to cover a town council meeting. If they made it through the meeting, they never managed to write something I could publish.

Work on a blog, reporting news you've gathered, not analyzing news someone else gathered. Do it for 5 years, full time. If you're still alive, then you can do what I did.

André

From the deep trenches of an office building, writes a M_A_N. This M_A_N laughs in the face of boredom. This M_A_N fears no fart gas. This M_A_N is tough as pencil leads and won't back down a tough discussion on the phone. This M_A_N is a M_A_N for which no M_A_N can compare.

He is, the "M_A_N".
http://intensedebate.com/people/M_A_N M_A_N

I do, in fact, own a fedora.

Writing 101: When complimenting or insulting, make sure your post is not so oblique that it leaves the reader guessing. Also, if you move my lunch in the office fridge again, I swear I'll file a complaint with the human rights commission.