# Never mind YouTube contests – equip your supporters as citizen journalists

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/11/25/never-mind-youtube-contests-equip-your-supporters-citizen-journalists/
- Published: 2007-11-25T09:59:06+00:00
- Author: Bryan Miller

**On Wednesday the UN’s food agency, The World Food Programme, launched what it 
described as a _“unique international competition”_ called [Hunger Bytes](http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2698)–
calling for budding film-makers to _“put their creativity towards raising awareness
about hunger”_, through the creation of 30 to 60 second videos. The top five selected
by WFP will be posted on YouTube and whichever receives the most views will win 
its creator a chance to visit and film one of WFP’s relief operations.**

While I’m not sure how _“unique”_ using [YouTube](https://fundraising.co.uk/tag/youtube/)
to encourage the creation of promo videos for causes is these days, their competition
is a good reminder of the potential of YouTube as a platform from which individuals
can help promote a cause.

However, if you really want to maximise on the potential of online video it’s worth
thinking beyond straightforward competitions for online promos.

## Advertisement

We live in a world where [citizen journalism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism)
is becoming increasingly common – as shown by all the requests for photos or video
footage on TV news shows. At the same time, research into what donors want in return
for their support increasingly highlights the importance of helping them to understand
just how their money delivers the goods – especially donors in the [‘Baby Boomer’ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer)
demographic.

So, how about putting the two together? Capitalising on the ease with which good
quality video content can be filmed, edited and posted online to enable groups of
supporters – from all age groups – to become citizen journalists, reporting-back
on your work to their peers.

For example, if you’re an animal welfare charity, could a small group of volunteers
film the work of your veterinary team for a day to offer a _‘supporter’s eye view’_
on how _their_ donations are being used? They might need some help to produce a 
quality product, but it could make for an interesting and engaging alternative to
the day-to-day newsletters and updates that people are used to receiving (and all
too often ignoring)?

 * **[Which charity will be first to make use of YouTube 'Annotations' interactivity?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/06/05/which-charity-will-be-first-make-use-youtube-039annotations039-interactivity/)**(
   5 June 2008)
 * **[Diabetes Type 1 Video](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/11/03/diabetes-type-1-video/)**(
   3 November 2008)
 * **[Why access to a billion presentations isn’t helping me!](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/12/16/why-access-billion-presentations-isn039t-helping-me/)**(
   16 December 2008)