YouTube's Biggest Info Channels Carry Corporate News, Not Alternative Views - FAIR
Despite the focus on YouTube's independent and sometimes extremist offerings, 83 of the top 100 YouTube news channels are corporate media,
fair.org
But despite the focus on the site’s independent and sometimes extremist offerings, 83 of the top 100 YouTube news channels—based on a list from SocialBlade, a website that tracks YouTube statistics, as of May 4—are corporate media, meaning owned and funded by large companies or conglomerates. Only six of the 100 top news channels are independently run.
The top channels encompass journalism from around the world, with only 12 based in the United States, and 81 coming from the Global South. Of the 12 US-based channels, all but two are owned—in whole or in large part—by six parent corporations.
The two independent channels are DramaAlert (ranked 78th in the world/10th in the US, with 5.7 million subscribers) and Cenk Uygur’s the Young Turks (ranked 89th/11th, with 5.2 million subscribers). DramaAlert, founded by online troll Daniel M. Keem, aka Keemstar, covers and creates Internet and entertainment controversies. The Young Turks, hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, is a left-wing news commentary channel.
