• The Independent , Tuesday, January 9, 2007 11:15 AM

Some may argue that the news business is a hopelessly saturated place where a dozen or so stories are repeated over and over again each day by thousands of media outlets. That's certainly true, but the Internet public has also shown it has an appetite for user-produced content, in the form of video, blogs or social networking pages.

User-generated media gives news stories much-needed additional perspective. On Web sites like YouTube, MySpace or even CNN, citizen journalism is on such a rapid rise that it may one day change the news business forever. The New York Times and CNN may choose material from a vast pool of user submitted-videos and stories instead of hiring full-time staff. With the rise of the Web, the barrier to entry gets lower and lower everyday.

For example, consider one victim of police brutality in Los Angeles, who was unwittingly filmed by a bystander. The man's pleas of "I can't breathe, I can't breathe!" had an electrifying effect across the YouTube community. Echoing Rodney King, the LAPD, which has been linked with police brutality in the past, was then placed under investigation by the FBI.

YouTube has been a key distributor of several news stories over the past year: from Steven Colbert's keynote address at the annual White House correspondent's dinner, to Republican Senate hopeful George Allen's infamous "macaca" comment about a Democratic rival's worker. For these and other instances, the 2006 congressional race has been dubbed the first "YouTube Election."

Read the whole story at The Independent »