Those BBCers just can't say enough about blogs. Here's some excerpts from their technology writer's reportage on the phenomenon:

Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center, a US-based think-tank that studies media, technology and society, highlights the US presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs.

"You could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power, to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before," he says.

"And blogs were a key part of that transformation."

Among them were blogs carrying picture messages, saying "we are sorry" for George W Bush's victory and the responses from his supporters.

Note: I would argue that We're Sorry isn't a blog, but a website. You can't post a photo by yourself. There is no ability to leave comments, etc., etc. Anyway ...

Mr Nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers, TV and radio.

"We have to acknowledge that in all of these cases, mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas," he told the BBC News website.

"But they followed the story, they didn't lead it."

I'm a bit confused by that sentence. So it was the mainstream media who followed the stories? In a certain sense, the media usually does "follow" the story. Most reporting is reactive. The media usually only helps set the news agenda when it does investigative work.

And the simple fact remains that blogs are often limited to relatively small communities. According to an earlier BBC story I blogged, the top political blog still only captured 0.0051 per cent of all web traffic, according to HitWise.

The influence of blogs is still directly proportional to their ability to influence the MSM.

This is a tidbit to remember:

US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months.

There's lots of blogs because they've lowered the technical barrier to getting on the Web. They're an everyman's (or every teenage girl's) content management system.

Prior to software like blogware or typepad, you had to know a little something about web publishing -- a little HTML, how to FTP. Now you don't.

But you still need something to say. And as the above statistic shows, not many people do.

Another excerpt:

"I don't think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. It is in transition, as society itself is in transition," says Mr Nachison.

However, he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper.

"The one-to-many road of traditional journalism, yes, it is threatened. And professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse," says Mr Nachison.

"The notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what's acceptable for public consumption and what isn't, that's gone forever."

"With people now walking around with information devices in their pockets, like camera or video phones, we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories."

While I think it's a good think to have more citizen involvement in newsgathering and more channels open for political discussion, call it a case of self-interest, but society still needs journalists.

I also think as the amount of information proliferates, gatekeeping will become more, not less important.