Storyful launches Kenya elections YouTube channel

Social news agency Storyful has launched a new channel on YouTube dedicated to coverage of this year's election in Kenya, including livestreams of the presidential debates.

In a blog post Storyful said that thanks to social media, "the Kenyan elections can be brought to the world, in close to real time, via YouTube for the first time ever".

"By maintaining a dedicated YouTube channel for the Kenya 2013 elections, Storyful hopes to bring together all the news, views and grassroots reporting from the Kenyan election trail in one convenient online portal, with playlists capturing some of the most important democratic themes."

In a Google Hangout today, Storyful managing editor Markham Nolan said the channel will act as a "one-stop-shop for all the content from the Kenyan elections on YouTube".

"It brings together all the work we do on a daily basis at Storyful monitoring various news situations from around the world, 24/7 as it happens."

He added that it is hoped the agreement they have in place to livestream the presidential debates will help bring the content to those who may have internet access but no television.

He added that Storyful is keen to hear from journalists and citizen reporters with interesting content to share.

"Just give us a shout because if the content can be relevant and shown to be valid then it is relevant to the debate," he said.

Outlining one of Storyful's "internal mantras" earlier in the discussion, Nolan said journalists at the social news wire, which launched in 2010, believe in always getting "as close to the story as you possibly can".

"There's always someone closer, and a lot of the time that person is not a professional journalist or they're not even involved in the media.

"What they are is someone who knows their terrain particularly well, they're a local, they understand exactly what's going on. Therefore they're the ones best placed to explain a situation.

"And they may be there way ahead of when the traditional media and the international media get there. So if they're the person with the first content and they're also able to offer the best context to any given situation, we feel they're the best person to tell the story."

The Google Hangout, which is available to view here, also looked at "how YouTube has been used to track elections across Africa" previously, such as by Ghana Decides, as well as in the US and Europe.

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