This article was written by J.D. Lasica about blogging and journalism. Lasica was quoted in the first article "Blogging: the new journalism?". Here he explains, along with other writers, that weblogs provide alternative writers with a creative outlet. It was posted in March of 2002, predicting that blogging would take a large role in journalism. Lasica predicted that bloggers would take on roles as "amateur journalists."
Here's what the other three writers thought:
Paul Andrews - thought blogs were gaining popularity due to the decline in big media's credibility and wasn't sure how popular it would end up
Deborah Branscum - reasons web blogs are cool: creative freedom, instantaneity, interactivity, lack of marketing constraints; wasn't willing to say that blogging would replace traditional journalism
Glenn Fleishman - believed that blogging wasn't superior or inferior to traditional forms of journalism, but was "fascinated" with the new form of media
These journalists were unable to predict in 2002 what the craze would be for blogging in 2005, even though they all really liked the new medium. This poses some questions about whether or not the credibility of blogging has increased from then to now. Then blogs were used for some reporting, but mainly to state the blogger's opinion on an issue. Today citizen journalism is taken quite seriously by readers and many do read blogs as a way to get their daily fill of the news.
The address for the site is: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958873.php