Yahoo, Reuters Debut ‘You Witness’

Fitted into the sidebar of Monday’s Financial Times was news that Yahoo! and Reuters had strengthened the ties to enable the integration of user-generated media and content with the regular syndicated feeds that grace the Yahoo! News page. They’re calling it ‘You Witness’. If this isn’t one giant leap of faith by two giant media houses, I don’t know what is.

Call it rogue journalism, call it the new new media, the world’s ever-present citizen news team of phone cameramen and bloggers have hit the mainstream. They are at the scene faster than the NYTimes gets the call to know what’s up, and when they work together, they can be equally effective at offering all sides of the story.

Democracy is messy. It wouldn’t be democracy if it wasn’t. Citizen journalism practices this process in strides, and it’s about time they’ve got their fair share of the limelight. Now with Yahoo! and Reuters promoting the process, there’s sure to be far more attention given to the everyman’s take on breaking events. You Witness will be the newest place to get minute-by-minute images, video clips, and even short summary reports, before, during, and after the folks with the credentials close on the scene.

Why do Yahoo! and Reuters want to be among the first to open their servers in this burgeoning frontier? Mary Ann O’Loughlin, vice-president of consumer practice at Ovum, a telecommunications consultancy said simply, “They want to be the 800lb gorilla in this space.” That’s no surprise. What will surprise is if You Witness becomes more of a mainstay than the best in the “rogue” biz. A few months will show whether it gets the world’s thumbs’ up or just a shrug of the shoulders.