Investigative news channel I Files launches on YouTube

YouTube's massive viewer base will soon have a new class of content meeting its eyes, for the website is to get an investigative news channel, I Files. The news channel, edited by the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, California, launches today with 10 videos. As per an official post, it will be updated daily. The news channel is said to include 'the best investigative news videos from around the world'. An official blogpost on Center for Investigative Reporting's website details that the stories shown will 'investigate power, reveal secrets and illuminate your world.' I Files' list of contributors include the likes of The New York Times, BBC, ABC and Al-Jazeera, as well as public television's ITVS and a host of independent reporters and producers. Its makers will be joining hands with  the Investigative News Network, and its coalition of 60 nonprofit news organisations, from NPR to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

Delving deeper into the topic, Stephen Talbot, a Senior Producer who also authored the post added that I Files is an experiment, while being ' yet another new venture in a media environment'. Last month, a report by The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism had emerged that found that YouTube is emerging as a popular way of accessing news. The researchers combed through roughly 260 videos that were the most popular news videos on YouTube, in the period between January 2011 and March 2012. They did this by identifying and tracking the 5 most-viewed videos each week in the "News & Politics" channel of YouTube. It was found that Internet users have begun creating their own videos based on news and posting them. Users actively shared news videos produced by journalism professionals. News organizations too were found to be utilising citizen content and adding it to their own.

Talbot, by way of this official post, highlights that news videos have begun finding their own ground on the popular video-viewing platform. He adds that raw, citizen-generated news as well as that by established broadcasters is finding its footing.  

The news channel has received funding from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.