Like to cover a concert, political campaign or a boycott as you see it, literally? Want to give your slant on your local back roads? How about recruiting some friends and creating a weekly show around your favorite hobby or other interest?

YouTube just made it easer to attract an audience to video programs you produce. Become a part of their new Citizen News Channel. (See the new channel category for “citizen journalists.”) From on-the-scene coverage to your kind of lively interviews to “how to” episodes (or all three in one?) you can create the programs in the genres that match your hottest interests and expertise. Now you can find some of the best news content on YouTube. Already, on the Global Voices channel, Miyong G. Kuon from South Sudan, is covering the conditions in refugee camps.

The channel’s news manager, Olivia Ma describes who might want to participate and why:

• People who tote around their cameras offering “on-the-scene” coverage of local news and events.
• Students producing their own weekly newscasts.
• Active community members who conduct interviews with local leaders.
• Engaged citizens who love providing commentary and analysis on issues affecting the world at large.
• Professional journalists using YouTube as an additional outlet for their work.

After you put your citizen news story up on YouTube’s new channel, go over to BBC’s Your News, then the Reuters/Yahoo You Witness News and, finally to CNN’s iReport. Put your program up on each of those sites too.