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Opinion

YouTube not a good information outlet 

Caitlin Cuppernull
Opinion Columnist

A video that aired on the popular Web site YouTube.com has led to an FBI investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The video featured William Cardenas being hit several times in the face by Los Angeles police officers. In recent months, videos posted on YouTube have affected political campaigns and brought attention to both unknown talents and celebrities; YouTube and other video sites are being used to detail wrongdoing by police, the Chronicle reported.

The idea that videos on YouTube have had a major impact on political campaigns or public information is far-fetched. The public should not allow an entertainment Web site to sway its opinions.

For the few who don’t spend their time procrastinating on YouTube, the Web site was created as a place for users to upload videos and view hundreds more dealing with every subject imaginable. 

While YouTube is an excellent way to waste time, it should not be a source of news or political information. Not only does the site offer absurd -- though admittedly funny -- videos, it also includes brutal beatings, fights, car accidents and fires. 

If someone has a videotape of police beating someone, a politician doing something they shouldn’t or anything the general public could benefit from, it should be sent to a news corporation. 

While not everything the media broadcasts is newsworthy, at least the video won’t be in the same boat as a clip of a tree on fire with the comments "Oh, I love fire … I have made huge fires involving gas, oil, butane, rocket boosters and many other chemicals," underneath.

Although we should commend those individuals making an effort to shed light on not so comfortable subjects, they should be doing so in a more professional, responsible way. 

While Cardenas’ neighbor sent the footage to an organization that works to stop the type of injustice Cardenas experienced, he should have sent it directly to the local news station. It takes a bit of the credibility away when the press finds the footage on the same site as videos of people dancing -- alone -- in their bedrooms to Michael Jackson’s "Thriller." 

For YouTube to be considered any sort of authority or tool for accessing information is ridiculous. It may have shed light on the incident in this example, but that could easily have been accomplished by handing over the video to a much more credible source. 

Hosting a video on YouTube only calls into question its integrity and reliability. Occurrences like this should most certainly be exposed, but that is the job of the media. If the media isn’t doing that job, well, that’s a whole separate opinion column.

Cuppernull, a communication freshman, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu