In an interesting new development, YouTube will now be making video coverage easier and more cost effective for the country's currently struggling media sector, thanks to its latest offering YouTube Direct. The free tool has been made for media houses interested in amateur video coverage of calamities, protests and/or other newsworthy happenings.

Via the new tool, to be officially launched on Tuesday, media houses will be able to solicit and show videos on their individual websites. YouTube is the internet's most popular video site and already has a huge collection of "citizen journalism" videos - both written and visual news coverage submitted by people who do not work for any media organization.

Despite this, interesting and useful videos can be difficult to locate, and this is where YouTube Direct comes in. "We’re trying to connect media organizations with citizen reporters on YouTube", said Steve Grove, YouTube's head of news and politics. With the new offering, news houses will be able to find videos that are useful to them by using the tool, which will also endorse a particular video and its submitter, and this opens new platforms for both new agencies and submitters.

Although specifically designed for media houses, YouTube has been quick to assert that the tool is also a good way for businesses and politicians to locate and collect promotional videos. The tool has been tested with NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, Politico. com and The Huffington Post.