• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 1, 2006

CNN now believes what Jimmy Durante once said about show business: "Everybody's getting into the act." News networks hope this trend comes in the form of younger viewers who are encouraged to become part-time journalists.

CNN says it'll solicit newsworthy user-generated video, under the CNN Exchange banner, which follows a number of other traditional and new video platforms doing the same thing.

This trend brings up issues of accuracy, appropriateness, and newsworthiness. Blogs are everywhere--whether in print, audio or video, not just on the Internet, but on TV and every available screen. These features are no longer called opinion or commentary--terms that seemingly apply just to the professional.

All kinds of videos are filling up Internet and TV screens, requiring viewers to be the judge--video that isn't edited or passing any kind of quality inspection. That's what new video viewers demand these days.

This is a bit different from the young-skewing Al Gore-infused cable news network, Current, which spends a lot of time displaying not just raw user-generated video, but user-generated journalism.

Does this mean CNN isn't getting all sides of the story? Not for each individual piece of video. For CNN, it's just a case of convenience--getting video it couldn't get otherwise. Viewers will know what is professional and what isn't--either on or offline. Each clip on CNN Exchange will be branded as an "I-Report."

Bottom line: Will all this help CNN's ratings, and perhaps get them new, young viewers?

CNN hopes that this will only build on its still topnotch reputation. In terms of credibility, all major TV outlets have lost substantial ground since 1998, according to Pew Research Center's Biennial News Consumption Survey.

But CNN is still the leader, with 29 percent of respondents saying they believe "all or most of what the organization says," according to Daily Variety citing results from the recent Pew report. "60 Minutes" was a close second, with 28 percent; C-SPAN and Fox News Channel are tied for third.

Someone, sometimes, needs to put things into context. Otherwise it's just random acts of video-ness.