Is blogging considered to be a form of journalism? Obviously the answer to that question, hinges entirely on what you consider “journalism” to be. Disregarding all blogs as cheap sensationalism, or the misguided, overly emphasized opinion of a zeal few (such as Perez Hilton) would follow a similar pattern of logic that allowed a “newspaper” such as The National Enquirer to represent the standard of journalistic integrity in the mass media.
Of course this doesn’t mean that all blogs have journalistic integrity, but to ignore an entire movement that allows for a two-way discussion would be seriously detrimental to the public sphere. The fact that blogs have become so simple to use, with relatively few entry barriers (aside from owning and being able to operate a computer) represents a tremendous breakthrough in “citizen journalism” and the growing popularity of blogs as sources of information marks a victory for the public sphere.
As the old adage goes “two heads are better than one” the mere existence of blogs to monitor larger news conglomerates can never be a bad thing. Even if blogs were viewed simply in a “watchdog” capacity, the more checks and balances put in place should theoretically result in a higher quality of news from larger conglomerates.
