LINK to 7/16/2012 report.
Excerpt: On March 11, 2011, an earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale struck the coast of northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that would kill more than 18,000 people and leave an estimated $180 billion in damage. The news media worldwide provided extensive coverage of the disaster and its aftermath, but millions of people also turned to the web to learn about the event on the video sharing website YouTube.
In the seven days following the disaster (March 11-18), the 20 most viewed news-related videos on YouTube all focused on the tragedy-and were viewed more than 96 million times.
What people saw in these videos also represented a new kind of visual journalism. Most of that footage was recorded by citizen eyewitnesses who found themselves caught in the tragedy.
Among the findings of the study:
- Most popular news videos tend to depict natural disasters or political upheaval.
- The 3 most popular storylines worldwide over the 15-month period were non-U.S. events. (70% of YouTube traffic is outside the U.S.)
- Citizens, i.e., non-professional news gatherers -- someone at the right place and the right time with some type of device able to record video -- play a substantial role in supplying and producing footage.
- Citizens are also responsible for posting a good deal of the videos originally produced by news outlets. And YouTube audience are reshaping the news agenda.
- The most popular news videos are a mix of edited and raw footage.
- Personalities are not a main driver of the top news videos.
- Unlike the standard approach of traditional TV news, YouTube news video vary greatly in length.
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