This morning YouTube announced a new site aimed at connecting citizen journalists with one another and with larger news networks. Called YouTube Direct, the site also allows news editors to make requests for footage of events, like natural disasters and political rallies. I’ve not been a huge fan of citizen journalism in the past, mostly because of the unedited trash people tend to gobble up as truth. This, though, puts that news back into the hands of the editors, which admittedly is its own problem, but I’ll take it over the alternative.

The site allows editors to post call-out videos requesting footage from your average Joe, a service that’s being tested by large news sources like the Huffington Post and NPR. The new site isn’t about revenue, though, according to YouTube’s head of news and politics, Steve Grove. “It’s an incentive to upload great video, because of the recognition you’ll get from legitimate news organizations.” The blog post announcing the site linked to videos you’ve probably seen of a teacher slapping an autistic child and a Chinese earthquake.

You can check out more about the service at the official blog.