YouTube has launched a new video channel called the Reporters’ Center to teach aspiring citizen journalists everything they need to know, with contributions from Bob Woodward, Katie Couric and a slew of other organizations including Reuters.

The advice ranges from the prosaic (”How to distribute your YouTube video on Facebook,” “How to not sound like an idiot“) to the profound.

“The first rule of reporting is to make sure you get back alive,” the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof tells viewers in “Covering a Global Crisis.” “There’s no point in getting a great interview with a warlord if afterward he kills you and takes your recorder.”

Here’s Reuters’ Dean Wright on how to earn the trust of an audience and stick to the basic principles of honesty, fairness and pursuit of the truth.

The big three networks — and their big three evening news anchors — are all over Barack Obama’s trip to the Middle East. Extensive coverage is planned, interviews will be touted, and ABC, NBC and CBS are sure to document his every more.

So is this attention on his trip just more evidence that the media plays favorites with Obama, as some have argued? (Who can forget the SNL skit?)

One evening news anchor, CBS’ Katie Couric,  made her feelings on the subject quite clear in a talk with TV critics. She believes there are “a number of really critical questions” Obama needs to answer about foreign policy.

“It’s not as if it’s going to be,  you know, ‘How do you like the weather in Jordan, Senator?’”

Here’s more on her take:

I think we’ve made a very conscious effort to be fair about how much attention we pay to each campaign and in the primary process as well.  I know there’s been a lot of discussion about Barack Obama’s upcoming trip and how much media attention it will receive, but I think editorially if you look at the fact that there have been questions about his foreign policy expertise and about his national security experience, prompted largely, quite 
frankly, by his Republican critics, and the fact that Iraq remains front and center in terms of how the United States may or may not extricate itself from that theater, then this is a really important trip newswise and editorially in terms of really being able to pin down Barack Obama on his foreign policy vision, if you will.

So much for the weather question.

 (Photo: Reuters)

If CBS tosses its news operation and channels that of CNN, would you care? That conundrum brings to mind a tough question for the media industry as a whole: content may be king, but does brand matter, especially with news?

The New York Times says executives from CBS and Time Warner have discussed reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its top personalities, such as Katie Couric, and paying a fee to buy CNN’s news feeds. Or CBS might keep its correspondents in certain regions but pair them with CNN crews. Anchors like Anderson Cooper already appear on both networks.

Variety says insiders at the two companies “downplayed” the report.

Sure broadcasting legends like Fred Friendly and William Paley may be turning in their graves, but in a world of declining viewership for network news and increased popularity of news consumed on the Web or mobile devices with aggregators like Drudge and Google News, one wonders if this is a smart cost-cutting move for CBS. CBS news is mired in last place amid the continuing struggles of Couric, who was given a $15 million a year contract, to attract new viewers, the Times said.

UPDATE: CBS News officially denies there are ongoing negotiations with CNN.   CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius:  “We’re extremely satisfied with and proud of our news gathering operation. No outside arrangements are being negotiated.” 

(New York Times)

Keep an eye on:

• Entrepreneur Media is up for sale — the first round of bids are over and it hopes to get around $200 million. (PaidContent)
• Facebook is close to settling a lawsuit brought by three former Harvard students who say the original idea for the social networking site was theirs. (NY Times)
• Hollywood studios urge the Screen Actors Guild to embrace the framework of the earlier deals reached with the directors and screenwriters unions. (Reuters)
• An online advertising network owned by News Corp, Fox Networks, has bought a majority stake in European video ad network Utarget as part of a move to expand in Europe and Asia. (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)