Across the globe blogs are supplementing the established news media. They have proved to be so powerful a medium that their influence is fast changing the face of journalism. Bloggers have greatly rejuvenated and renewed the entire world of journalism, and in some places blogging is journalism!

The internet gives journalists access to citizen voices that are new, fresh, and right from the grass roots, thus democratizing information itself. The web as a potential and reliable source of information has drastically changed the way journalists think and work.

It is not only professional journalists who have an opinion on the events unfolding around us. Many ordinary citizens too are experts in various fields and are eager to take part in public debate. Journalists researching for news stories can find new and authentic sources on the net, especially in the blogosphere. The internet has valuable sources of information that are not fully used by the media.

The work processes in both the print and digital journalism involve the generation of ideas, research, presentation, and evaluation. Thus the two forms are similar on the surface. But with the evolution of digital journalism, the biggest change can be seen in the way stories are researched. The journalistic work process is updated and revolutionized by the digital media. Storytelling is changing drastically and the media have a range of new methods to receive, analyze, and respond to reactions and feedback from the public. These changes are such that they could bring about improvement in the quality of all aspects of journalism.

Journalists can now verify their stories easily. Readers are constantly evaluating the stories published in digital media and are adding more information or pointing out mistakes or improvements. The most important change, however, is from bloggers and citizen journalists who share information and knowledge. They update news and information instantly, for example, through Twitter.

Once a story is published, journalists can measure the popularity of their article by the number of hits their story has got. By reacting to mistakes or inaccuracies, readers help to make news stories read better and better. Such is the potential of digital journalism.

Blogs are fast evolving into a powerful medium, especially in countries where freedom of press is limited or nonexistent. In some countries, such as Iran and Syria, blogs are the only reliable source of information. But even in other countries, blogs have a crucial role to play in supplementing the established news media.

Today, we see bloggers becoming journalists or newspapers inviting bloggers to write columns. This trend is a direct product of the immense popularity some of the bloggers enjoy. The biggest advantage of blogging is that it can renew journalism by bringing in new voices, ideas, and concepts.

The most important digital tool on the internet is the search engine. And it is vital to how journalists gather information. Search engines are dynamic tools and can lead to new sources for news stories. So, journalists need to develop a very good understanding of how the search engines work.

It has always been believed that only when journalists are from varied backgrounds will their work be spontaneous, enthusiastic, and fair. The reason why blogs are interesting is mainly because bloggers are from various walks of life.