Future's bright for blogging and citizen journalism

OK, so forget about the state of journalism. Forget newspapers losing pocket loads of revenue - due in part to their own over-inflated egos. Forget the newspaper hacks that are miked off about citizen journalism and bloggers making news and stealing their thunder. Only last week a blogger broke a story whilst travelling on the London Underground, where an elderly man was being tormented by a vile Transport For London Tube worker (video below). There's no doubt that we all have the ability to be news makers now - and to aid big media in getting stories. Remember when The-Latest.com was first on the scene at the G20 protests, and had exclusive footage regarding the brutal tactics of police in 'kettling' some people in preventing them from going about their business in London on that tragic day when a man died due to the Met's over-enthusiastic tactics? A report due out next week, Monday, by the social media gurus from Technocrati claim that blogging has never looked rosier. There's been reports by some that the world of blogging was dying due to people turning to micro-blogging services such as Twitter and Facebook. No need to vent your spleen about the state of the world, when you can just write a status update on facebook, or a short 140 character rant on Twitter. But figures obtained from US media reporters via WebProNews (who attended the annual Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas,) suggest that that is far from the case. Of nearly 3000 bloggers polled in a survey, more than 70% are hobby bloggers, who don't earn a cent from blogging - except they are passionate about what they do, and do it for a public service. 60% of bloggers are between the ages of 18 - 44, suggesting that there's a growing trend of middle-aged bloggers wanting to put the world to rights on Web 2.0 services. Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra told WebProNews that the industry has never looked stronger. He said: "There's a rising profession of professional bloggers. Traditional media has given bloggers a bad name." 63% of bloggers in general say that they have become more involved with what they are passionate about as a result of blogs, and only 6% say relationships with friends or family have suffered. Despite the rise of Twitter, most bloggers use the micro-blogging service to pimp their blogs, and that those not associated with a blog use Twitter to search for news and opinion. They want to find news, and they don't care if it's on a blog, a Citizen Journalism site, or a big media organisation.