News and Resources on YouTube

TuttoYouTube is a vast repository of content ranging from amateur films to handmade music videos to sports bloopers. It’s also home to a growing number of news channels, including those produced by major news organizations and independent outlets with their own staffs. The majority of these news channels are oriented around an individual – whether that’s the host of a television show or an independent reporter.

As one might expect, these channels are often geared toward an ideological perspective. In a survey of people who get their news on YouTube, clear majorities say the news videos they watch help them better understand current events and expect them to be largely accurate. But there’s a wide variation in their views on some specific topics and issues.

Stay Informed: The Best Resources for YouTube Marketing News

This report examines 377 channels that frequently cover news and current affairs and had at least 100,000 subscribers as of November 2019. Researchers analyzed these YouTube news channels using a process similar to the one used for previous Pew Research Center research on YouTube (see Chapter 2 and Methodology). Channels were examined for external affiliation, whether they have a distinct host, their focus on a particular issue, and if they are partisan in nature.

Most YouTube news channels are oriented around an individual, with about a quarter of the channels affiliated with news organizations being focused on a political figure. However, this trend is far more prevalent among independent channels: More than a third of these channels have a distinct host who is identifiable in all or most of their videos.