Yahoo! to launch citizen video-journalist news service?

Yahoo! News plans to launch a citizen video-journalist news service to publish news captured by the public, according to various reports.

Red Herring, the US technology and business magazine, claims the project will launch 'after months of development' at the end of June.

It claims that sources involved in discussions with Yahoo! News have said the service would eventually introduce a system that allowed footage to be uploaded without the need of a computer.

Red Herring reports that Yahoo! is working on a way to use a five-digit number - called a common short code - that will allow a user to upload video directly from their mobile phone via an MMS message.

It claims this service will not be available when the site launches, but by simplifying the upload process Yahoo! aims to encourage more people to submit footage.

Yahoo! already has a video section on its website linking users to other sites - where they can view the videos - but it does not yet host citizen media video.

However, according to Red Herring, Yahoo! will neither confirm nor deny the launch of a citizen journalist site.

"It was the aftermath of the London bombings that woke up Yahoo! and the rest of the media," a source told Red Herring.

"They started thinking of the amazing resource that is the army of people walking around with still picture and video cameras in their cell phones.

"Not every news story will be the London bombings, but news of local and regional importance happens all the time."

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