The Infamous "Macaca" Incident (an example of the type of posting you might do)

This video, orginally poseted on the website YouTube (recently bought by Google for $1.65 billion dollars), highlights the shift in power that has accompanied the medium of the Internet. It's unlikely that this video, taped by one of Jim Webb's campaign workers, would have ever made it to the mainstream media if it had to make it's way through all of the gatekeepers who decide what's "fit to print."

More recently YouTube has made the news again, when a bystander with a camera phone caught some LAPD officers seemingly beating a man while he is restrained (I won't post this video due to the graphic content, but I'm sure you'll fint it if interested). Here's a link to a story about YouTube's latest foray into grassroot journalism from the Wall Street Journal. The story not only looks at this incident but expands upon YouTube's potential influence (including infringement on copyright law).

I believe tha this is a clear sign of the democratization of the media brought on by this new technology. If mainstream media sources continue this trend of picking up their stories based on content provided by non-media journalists, made popular (or selected) by non-media gatekeepers (the viewers at YouTube), then the influence the public is able to have on mainstream content is greater than ever before. How long before these tradional sources of the news are replaced by a more direct, perhaps more relevant (or perhaps less), version brought to us by us through a click of the mouse?