There has been a lot of news happening around the world and YouTube has become heavily involved with it. Today, Google has reflected on the past year and shared some insights into how journalists used the service to disseminate information. Compared to years ago where it was a “global living room”, it, along with Twitter and other social networks, has become a global newsroom.
According to YouTube, 800 million users use the search box and their subscriptions to better understand and get a perspective on what happened. It has proven to be especially helpful in giving reporters the chance to quickly upload videos right from their mobile device so that viewers can understand what it’s like being there when leaders are angry, sad, or when historical events happen.
In 2012, several milestones were hit, including the one billionth view on the Associated Press’ YouTube channel, something that only a few dozen channels have done in the network’s history.
Other key events in YouTube’s history this year included:
- The Weather Channel livestreamed its coverage of Hurricane Sandy for more than 70 hours, reaching millions of people who normally weren’t able to get updates, with 39,000 videos uploaded in just one week
- More than 200 countries watched the US Presidential Elections on YouTube by ABC News
- The Presidential debates drew 27 million views while the New York Times’ debates uploads had 13 million views making them the most-viewed video on its channel ever
- Over 350,000 news and political videos were uploaded about the Syrian protest, and viewed 200 million times
- Felix Baumgartner’s historic dive was simultaneously viewed by 8 million people, being called one of the biggest live YouTube audiences ever assembled
- More than 10,000 videos were uploaded and tagged “Pussy Riot”
- 19,000 videos are in reference to slain teenager Trayvon Martin
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