• SFWeekly.com, Friday, June 18, 2010 12:48 PM

YouTube is working on some clandestine journalism project in San Francisco, according SFWeekly, citing a report by SFAppeal blogger Eve Batey. Batey herself is apparently part of a select group of "San Francisco bloggers, writers, and digital journalists," that YouTube is asking to participate in the project. YouTube reportedly told Batey that it's already "mobilizing 150 citizen journalists throughout the city with smartphones."

Rather than simply outlining the project for Batey, however, a YouTube rep sent her a link to an Atlantic magazine article entitled "How to Save the News," with the note, "Perhaps this article will help to explain Google's interest in helping professional journalists." The article reads: "Google's hope is that broader use of YouTube videos could substantially boost a news organization's long-term ability to engage an audience ... Amateur-produced video is perhaps the most powerful new tool of the Internet era in journalism ... The idea behind the various YouTube projects is that the same newspapers that once commanded an audience with printed reports ... could re-create their central role by becoming a clearinghouse for video reports."

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