Since the launch of Project: Report, aspiring journalists from around the world have produced video reports on issues not covered by the traditional media. Voting for Round 2 is complete, and the panel of journalists from the Pulitzer Center is in the process of tallying the final counts. Tomorrow, we will announce which five of the 10 semi-finalists will advance to the final round of competition and get one step closer to the $10,000 journalism fellowship to report on a story abroad.





Tomorrow, these five finalists begin their work on the third and final assignment: produce a piece of collaborative storytelling that empowers an underrepresented community to share its own story with the world. First, choose a group of people rarely covered by the traditional media. Then, let them use the camera to document their own lives.

The video must be five minutes or less. All entries must be submitted in English or have English subtitles. For those of you who were not selected as finalists, you can still complete the Round 3 assignment to compete for additional technology prizes from Sony Vaio and Intel.

If you're looking for some examples, take a look at this video from Pulitzer Center journalist Andre Lambertson on child soldiers in Liberia. He also offers tips for how to produce a piece of collaborative storytelling.

All accepted entries will be reviewed by a panel of journalists from the Pulitzer Center and judged based on the depth of the reporting, the clarity of the narrative, and the power of the story. The videos from the five finalists will also be voted on by the YouTube community.

Though only five reporters will move on to the final round, all ten of the semi-finalists produced impressive work, and in today's homepage takeover, we feature the videos they submitted in Round 2, each of which tells a story unfolding in a local community that touches on global themes and issues.

We hope you enjoy!

Yours,
Olivia M.
YouTube News & Politics

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Lionsgate's new film The Spirit is hitting theaters everywhere this Christmas, and to honor the occasion, the YouTube Screening Room is going graphic. Graphic novel that is.

Directed by Frank Miller and based on the comic by Will Eisner, The Spirit tells the story of a rookie cop who returns from beyond the grave to fight evil in Central City. So, for the next two weeks we'll be featuring four shorts that reflect the film's spooky subject matter and comic book roots.

In "The Aviatrix," the only escape for a young woman woman living with cancer exists in the form of her comic book alter ego. A young couple attempting to salvage their marriage by dressing as superheroes find themselves faced with an even greater task after being unexpectedly forced out of their apartment in "Super Powers." Based on a 19th century urban legend, "Spring-Heeled Jack" tells the story of a goblin who steals the voices of naughty children. Finally, a little girl overlooked by everyone in her village takes her savage revenge in "The Little Girl Who Was Forgotten."

Happy viewing!

Sara P.
YouTube Film

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The YouTube flagging system works best when you take the time to understand our Community Guidelines before you flag a video. Then, if you come across a video that you think may not belong on YouTube, it will be easier for you to let us know the reason you flagged it, whether it be for hate speech, nudity, violence, or another Guideline violation. Once a video is flagged, we review it quickly, and if we find that it shouldn't be on YouTube, we remove it within hours. It's as easy as that.

Lots of users ask us questions about flagging. Whether you're brand new to the Community Guidelines or looking to get a flagging refresher, check out this new video to get a closer look at how it works.



The next time you come across inappropriate content on the site, flag it!
We're counting on you.

The YouTube Team

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When we first started YouTube, our vision was to create a platform that would allow everyone to broadcast themselves. So when it came to developing an approach to online advertising and marketing, we had a similar goal: everyone should benefit from the experience, whether you're a user, advertiser, or content partner.

We've been fortunate to have grown so quickly. The popularity of YouTube has been outstanding — we have millions of viewers watching hundreds of millions of videos every day, and 13 hours of new video uploaded to the site every minute. But as our community has grown, it's become harder for people to get their content to stand out and be discovered. Aspiring musicians, talented performers, small business-owners and many others have asked for ways to promote their videos and reach users who are interested in their content.

So today, we're excited to announce our newest advertising innovation, YouTube Sponsored Videos. Sponsored Videos is a self-serve advertising platform that will allow you to promote your video to the audience you are interested in reaching in an easy, effective, democratic, and affordable way. Then, when people use YouTube to search for videos, YouTube will display the most relevant, compelling videos alongside the search results. These videos are clearly labeled as "sponsored videos" and are priced on a cost-per-click basis. (For more details about Sponsored Videos, you can visit ads.youtube.com, or read our announcement on the official Google blog.)

Check out our video for more details on how Sponsored Videos works:



If you have any videos you'd like to share with the world, give Sponsored Videos a try! It takes just a few minutes to set up, and you can set your budget at any level you wish. Please visit ads.youtube.com to start your own Sponsored Videos campaign.

Don't forget to let us know what you think about Sponsored Videos. You can leave a comment here or join the discussion in our Forums.

Have fun!
The YouTube Team

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Project: Direct, YouTube's annual short film competition, is back to offer another talented filmmaker a chance to be discovered!

This year we've partnered with AOL Moviefone and The Sundance Film Festival to bring you this challenge: direct an original short film incorporating three specific props. One must be a red phone and the other two must be chosen from a list of 25 props that have played stand-out roles in some of the most memorable films to emerge from the Sundance Film Festival over the past 25 years. To choose your props, visit www.youtube.com/projectdirect.

Submissions open on November 16 and close at 9PM PST on December 14. A panel of Sundance Film Festival executives will review your film and whittle the competition down to 10 semi-finalists. Then, on December 27, the YouTube community will start voting for the winning film.

If you win, you'll be off to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where you'll meet with the Festival's Director of Programming and screen your film at a festival event. The top three films will also take home cash prizes and be distributed on DVD to industry executives at the Festival.

While the competition proper is only officially open to entrants in the US, Canada, Brazil, UK, Spain, Italy and France, everyone is welcome to submit and we will feature top films on the YouTube site.

Need some inspiration to get started? Check out last year's three finalists:



Visit the Project: Direct channel to learn more, and take advantage of a rare opportunity to introduce your work to both a global audience and key industry executives.

Good luck,
Sara P.
YouTube Film

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Today Project: Report, the journalism contest YouTube is holding in partnership with the Pulitzer Center, moves into the voting phase. Submissions for Round 2 are in, and now you can help decide which of the 10 semi-finalists should take a step closer to winning the $10,000 fellowship to report on a story abroad.

The 10 semi-finalists, chosen by a panel of Pulitzer Center journalists, have just turned in their assignments, in which they're asked to tell a local story unfolding in their communities that demonstrates global issues or challenges. Now you have the opportunity to decide which of these aspiring journalists should advance to Round 3 and continue competing for the grand prize.





Visit the Project: Report channel to watch the contestants' efforts and vote for the stories you find the most compelling. You can only vote for one video per day, and voting continues until Sunday, November 16. Also, be sure to stay tuned to the News & Politics page, where we will highlight some of the videos submitted by reporters other than our semi-finalists. The best of this crop will win additional prizes from Sony and Intel.

Happy Viewing (and Voting)!

Yours,
Olivia M
YouTube News & Politics

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In high school gyms, small-town churches, and McDonald's drive-thrus across America, over 130 million Americans voted in this week's presidential election. Thousands of citizens documented their experiences on camera and shared them with the world here on YouTube to commemorate this historic event.

Marking the end of an epic and exhilarating election season, the videos on the homepage today include clips that chronicle the excitement of the big day, and capture the euphoric reactions to Obama's election as the next President of the United States. Jubilant Obama supporters celebrated everywhere -- in their living rooms, in front of the White House, even half-way across the world -- and produced records of their experience that they can one day show their grandchildren.





Over 2,000 videos (and counting) have poured into the Video Your Vote channel thus far, which is where YouTube and PBS teamed up to collect videos capturing the American voting experience. Each one is plotted onto a Google Map, painting a fascinating and important picture of what took place on Tuesday. This record will exist far past this election, allowing you to search and find videos uploaded near your home - and to experience how historic November 4th, 2008 was for America.

Yours,
Olivia M.
YouTube News & Politics.

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As YouTube grows, more and more people from all parts of the world are communicating and connecting. We want to make it easy for you to reach out and learn from each other, while you engage only in those conversations you choose. That's why we've developed the Help and Safety Tool to help you manage communications with other community members.

Using the tool is easy: Once you are logged into your personal account, the tool lets you connect directly into your channel so that you can see all communications you've had with a particular user, remove comments you'd rather not keep, and even block the user from further communication.

In addition to letting you decide which communications you would like to see, the Help and Safety Tool also gives you a simple way to let us know about additional concerns you may have related to other users. This is only the first step; we'll continue to add more features to the tool to keep the power in your hands.

Remember: you have choices on YouTube. To learn more, visit our Abuse & Safety Center, where you can find additional information about these issues. If the Abuse & Safety Center doesn't answer all your questions, you'll find "Contact Us" links at the bottom of some of our articles. Click on the link to get to the new tool, and from there you can report your concerns to us.

The YouTube Team

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The holiday season is quickly approaching. For all the fun that ensues, there are always lots of things to do and sometimes a little stress. Well, YouTube is here to help. This year we've teamed up with Lowes Home Improvement and created the Holiday Solutions Center to help with your holiday hassles and share some great ideas for the special season. This YouTube checkpoint is built to get you through the holidays without a hitch. From cooking to decorating and gift giving, our Holiday Solutions Guide brings together some of our favorite festive experts in one place.



First time hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your house? Epicurious.com gives you recipes and tips on the staples. Want to give your place an inviting feel for the holidays? E-How has plenty of DIY ideas that are quick and simple. Whatever your quandary, the Holiday Solutions Center is the perfect place to visit when you need answers to your holiday questions.

Happy Holidays
Sadia H.
YouTube HowTo & Style

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You don't have to be on the YouTube site to watch videos. The YouTube player can be added to virtually any website, giving website creators and web surfers infinite access to the YouTube library. With close to 44 percent of our users watching embedded videos, we're committed to constantly refining the player. Today, we are pleased to announce four new features:

• High-quality start images (thumbnails) – Before you press play on embedded YouTube videos, the thumbnails for the video will be presented in high-quality. We're pleased with the results – let us know if you agree.


• Search in embeddable player – At the close of an embedded video, along with the usual recommended videos and URLs, a search box will appear. Not only will you be able search from within the embedded player, you will be able to watch videos through the same window. That's right, you can search all of YouTube from the comfort of your favorite blog, news, or humor page.


• Integrated video annotations – Annotations enable video producers to incorporate text information into their videos, create choose your own adventure-style stories or add links to any YouTube video. People watching videos through the embedded player can now join the fun.


• Integrated closed captions – Back in August we started allowing video creators to add captions to their videos. Closed Captions are now available in embedded videos like this one:

Our open APIs and embeddable players allow more and more people to transform the way they distribute and enjoy videos while avoiding the traditional cost and hassle of hosting videos. We look forward to seeing the fun and creative ways you will use these new features.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment here or posting in our Help Forums.

Have fun,
The YouTube Team

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