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CNN to put users' video online

Tags:
Youtube

Published: 31 Jul 2006 12:45 BST

CNN wants some of the clips being uploaded to popular video-sharing sites, such as YouTube, to find their way to the cable news channel.

On Monday, CNN is expected to announce the launch of CNN Exchange, a page on the company's Web site that will feature user-submitted video, audio and articles.

The pioneer in 24-hour news broadcasting is coming to user-submitted video at a time when "citizen journalism" has sparked much fanfare. The trend began with text — ordinary people in the blogosphere commenting about news events or in some instances, reporting breaking news stories.

The next stage appears to involve lenses and viewfinders. Video-sharing sites, such as Revver, Grouper, Guba and YouTube have become online warehouses for war footage from Lebanon, Iraq, and Chechnya.

As part of CNN's coverage of the fighting in Lebanon earlier this month, the cable channel showed clips that it found on YouTube. The videos were taken by people as they rushed into bomb shelters or witnessed rockets crashing into buildings.

"User-generated content has the potential to play a pivotal role in journalism whether it's online or offline," said Mitch Gelman, senior vice president and executive producer for CNN.com, in a statement. "With CNN Exchange, we've essentially created a one-stop shop for CNN.com users to share their contributions with other Internet users."