Donate NowJon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is pleased to join in the launch today of Reporters' Center, a new venture of the News and Politics channel on YouTube aimed at bridging the gap between established journalists at traditional news outlets and the aspiring journalists who are part of the global YouTube community. Plenty of great video pointers, from journalists like Bob Woodward, Katie Couric, Nick Kristof and Scott Simon.
We welcome this opportunity to talk about our mission at the Pulitzer Center, a non-profit created with the goal of bringing under-reported stories on vital global issues to the broadest possible public. The first Pulitzer video on Reporters' Center is "how to surface, pitch, and distribute an untold story."
The second, featuring associate director Nathalie Applewhite, addresses how to to use video "to bring your story to life."
Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube, called Reporters' Center something new.
"For the first time on YouTube, veteran journalists are making themselves openly available to aspiring reporters around the world who want to report on the news and events happening around them," he said. "As current events demonstrate on a daily basis, citizen-reporting on YouTube is a critical part of today's media landscape - and the YouTube Reporters' Center will help foster an even more productive relationship between professionals and these aspiring reporters."
The Reporter's Center also features videos by Pulitzer Center-supported journalists Beth Murphy, Kwame Dawes, and Andre Lambertson, originally featured as how-to videos for Project: Report. Launched thsi past fall, Project: Report was our first collaboration with YouTube. It was an extraordinary international competition that surfaced great new video journalism talent. Nearly 3 million people downloaded videos associated with Project: Report, a tribute to YouTube's faith that this site can be a platform for serious journalism.**
YouTube has been a terrific platform for the nearly 40 short videos the Pulitzer Center has produced for public television, and for the dozens of "share your stories" videos from around the world that have been posted in response to our Pulitzer Gateways on water, food insecurity, India, and women and children in crisis. You can find all those videos on YouTube's Pulitzer Center channel -- we hope you'll take a look.
At the Reporters' Center you can share your story too, and your thoughts on the tips from journalists at the Pulitzer Center and from the many other news organizations taking part in Reporters' Center. Check it out -- and join the conversation!
**Updated 07/01/09