With Youtube emerging more and more as a popular media platform, it has left it’s notoriety for cat videos in the past. However, it has gained a new reputation. Now, YouTube is known for three things: viral videos, music videos and vloggers. And while I watch plenty of these types of videos and love them, I consider it a travesty to pigeon-hole the entire platform to these genres.
This is the first of a series which will focus on the lesser-known categories of videos. These are personal recommendations for my favorite content on my favorite media platform.
The first genre to explore is news. YouTube is a useful tool for getting news stories. I tend to use it to find fun, more light-hearted stories that aren’t as prevalent on television news channels. These videos are often short-form presenting with either a recap of news for the week or breaking developments. Some of my favorite channels for news are SourceFed, The Know, WTF News and JustKiddingNews.
SourceFed is a channel dedicated to breaking news and comedy. Their newscasts masterfully integrate sketch comedy with informative reports. Created by Phillip DeFranco in 2012 the show focuses on news in pop culture and media for the most part and boasts the talent of many hosts. These hosts are the heart and soul of their newscasts, usually pairing two personalities to work off each other. Their current hosts are Steve Zaragoza, William Haynes, Matt Lieberman, Reina Scully, Sam Bashor, Bree Essrig and Maude Garrett. Along with their main news content they also produce podcasts, play cards against humanity and have multiple second channels.
It isn’t often that videogames make the daily news on network television. So, to get the latest in video game news I subscribe to the channel The Know. This channel is produced by Rooster Teeth and focuses on reporting gaming and other relevant media news as it breaks. The two main hosts are Meg Turney and Ashley Jenkins, but occasionally feature longer commentary from the members of affiliated channel Funhaus. The hosts try to remain as unbiased as possible when reporting facts, but they are unable to refrain from showing their own excitement, disappointment or confusion over big announcements.
One of my favorite sources of slightly off-color and ridiculous news is WTF News. A weekly program on Shane Dawson’s channel, this show highlights some of the craziest news to happen. The host, Destery Smith Moore, is eccentric to say the least, and WTF News never fails to bring uncomfortable hilarity, often of a sexual nature.
Just Kidding News is the last entry on this list and takes a slightly different format. This is more of a roundtable discussion of recent news stories. Usually covering two hot-button topics per video, the colorful cast of commentators hold no qualms about letting their opinions be heard. This show is less about getting the news out than having a good laugh over some of the straight up stupid things that humans do.
These are just a few of the sources for news out there on YouTube, and while these tend to cover the silly, strange and niche there are channels covering a broad range of topics just waiting for you to explore. Take a click around, and you may find one covering the stories you care about.
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