Will blogs make journalists redundant?

The very fact that a class in journalism has now included blogging as a part of the curriculum underlines the importance of this medium even from a journalistic point of view. Although I have never written any blogs in my life, there is enough evidence to prove that Blogs are well on their way to becoming the most important communication tool for general readers, businesses, journalists..just about anybody!

That said, it would be to simplistic to assume that the rise of blogs means the end of newspapers or other mass media. Newspapers play a very significant role in information dissemination and are often the opinion leaders for their readers. While a blog may afford its creater with all the freedom and convenience in the world, it lacks one important luxury that a newspaper enjoys- credibility. The feature that has made blogging so popular is also its biggest pitfall. The blogs are completely unedited and therefore you aare just forced to take the word of the writer without any real means to verify it. While this may be just as true in the case of newspapers, maybe our society is conditioned to accept everything (or most things) printed in the newspaper as being true! While public attitudes might change over time, I really doubt whether blogs will ever dethrone newpapers as the most reliable source of information. This is specially true when it comes to getting news on serious topics such as health, business, politics etc.