by Vilie Farah

Created on: August 19, 2010

Nearly 70 percent of the US journalists examine blog postings on a regular basis, a poll carried out by Brodeur shows. Blogs have turned into a popular information source and have even affected the manner in which reporters look for news and present events.

Blogs have affected reporting and have managed to make it among the most popular sources of information. Political bloggers exercise influence over parties and officials, showing how powerful civil society can be.

News and political blogs can hardly be affected by censorship and media regulations. This feature is as much positive as negative, yet it is just one of the many tendencies that the appearance of blogs has brought.

Blogs came to have major impact in the sphere of journalism. They changed traditional reporting in a number of ways.

CENSORSHIP IN THE MEDIA
Censorship can hardly ever affect bloggers. People with opinions have discovered a new way to present their ideas, even when traditional channels deny them this chance.

Web anonymity and the impossibility of controlling the blogosphere has given bloggers a chance to avoid state control even in the most undemocratic societies. What you see in blogs will be significantly different from the official news reports.

Blogs start acting as a reality check. They speak of issues that no media would cover and present opinions that would otherwise remain unheard. Blogging is a completely new communication channel.

NEWS FROM EYEWITNESSES
Bloggers can present an eyewitness account long before media manage to compile and fact-check a report.

If you want to find out what is going on in a specific part of the world, you need to discover the blog of a local with a specific interest in events and reporting. These people present detailed accounts and write about events the way they have experienced them.

Blogging has given news a personal touch. The accounts of eyewitnesses are much more realistic and influential than the so-called impartial media reports.

FREEDOM TO WRITE OPINION PIECES
Media policies often ban journalists from stating their opinion. They have to give in to political and economic interests. Bloggers are free from such influences. As a result, political bloggers have somehow managed to become more powerful than journalists.

Each country has its celebrity political bloggers. These people have no fear and share their point of view regardless of circumstances. They have something to say to the world and to authorities. Their writings can readily influence the adoption

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