YouTube might be the world’s largest repository of news, political information and generally accessible knowledge. Unfortunately, it might also be the world’s largest repository of rubbish, fiction and propaganda.
While some advocate ignoring the good to avoid the bad, there are ways to find reliable political content on YouTube, if you know how to ask the right questions.
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Beware of shortcuts
If you’re familiar with YouTube, you might already know how to find “news.” In the banner at the top of the home page, you can scroll through the recommended topics and news it’s usually one of them. news it’s also one of the shortcuts in the far left column of the home page below explore.
YouTube recommends content based on what you watch and may make certain assumptions about your political views based on the music you listen to, the games you watch, or anything else you’re doing on the site. Your taste in music may be much more conservative than your taste in political leadership.
If you return to YouTube through a private browser window, you might be surprised to see how the site’s news recommendations have changed. Still, it’s worth exploring how to find your own news instead of taking what YouTube gives you.
Question everything you see on YouTube
Since almost anyone can post almost anything on YouTube, finding content you trust means asking questions, both about the content you want to find and the content you already find. We’ll show you how to use it on YouTube, but these rules apply to other sites and media types as well.
1. What kind of content is it?
The title and description of a video can often give you a good idea of what the poster wanted to do with the video. While print journalism may have invented punchy headlines, YouTube elevated the clickbait headline to an art form. Most of the time, if the video has an agenda, you’ll be able to tell right away.
That’s not all you can tell from a thumbnail. YouTube also indicates how old a video is and whether it was uploaded live. While this may not matter much for some videos, if you’re looking for something like a senate hearing or a presidential debate, knowing that something was streamed live can make a big difference.
2. Who posted the content?
Many government agencies, broadcasting groups such as CSPAN or PBS, and established media outlets have YouTube channels. Maybe this is the kind of channel you trust, and maybe it isn’t.
If you’re not familiar with the person or organization that posted a video, check them out. This could be as simple as clicking on their profile to visit their page.
Some particularly polarizing outlets have a description that will let you know right away where they are and what their intentions are. Others are more subtle and try to appear more balanced than they really are. When in doubt, their channels about The page usually links to a more comprehensive website where you can learn more about them.
You probably know how to follow the pages you like. But did you know that you can effectively block YouTube pages you don’t like? This can prevent a lot of junk from appearing in your search for quality content.
3. Where was the content published?
YouTube is pretty unique as a news source in that you can find incredibly local news as well as national and international news.
Sometimes an event that happens in someone’s backyard makes national news. You might hear about it first from a big news channel, but you can go to YouTube and see what the locals are saying.
Local groups can often devote more time and resources to local stories, so their coverage may be more comprehensive than that of larger outlets.
On the other hand, finding news sources outside your home country can help you gain a new perspective on national events. If you live in the UK, how does the US view the recent problems of keeping a prime minister? If you live in the US, how does Canada view the endless arguments over the debt ceiling?
You don’t even have to limit yourself to your language group. You can change the audio language of any YouTube video to make even more varied content accessible to you.
“Trusted” content on YouTube
What makes content trustworthy? That depends on you. How do you find YouTube content you trust? By asking questions about what the content is created for, who created it, how and where.
