I've been thinking about the relationship between bloggers and the mainstream media a lot lately.  A lot of that centers around the Blogger Summit of course, but I've been pondering this at other times before.  The blogosphere, as many people like to point out, is the ultimate meritocracy.  If you have good content, people will read your blog.  If you don't, then your blog will fall by the wayside.  The barriers to entry for blogging are also incredibly low.  Anyone can go on Blogger and start one up.

But as I've said before, there is a difference between posting on a blog, and having it read.  There is a difference between speaking and being heard.  For as much as bloggers like to talk about "just doing this for myself", and how they're "honored anyone would want to read their blog"... we want to influence people.  Sure... we also want to enjoy ourselves while we're influencing you, but that doesn't change the fact that we want to change how you think.  So does television, radio and newspapers.

Unfortunately, the blogger audience isn't large enough to have a very big influence.  A lot of people simply don't read blogs.  Compared to other forms of communications, blogs are a small drop in the bucket.  I've always said that if bloggers want to have a larger influence, we have to engage those other media outlets in order get our voices heard.  After all, people already know them and (unfortunately) trust them.  The majority of the current voting public is most familiar with the mainstream media.  The mainstream media is the gatekeeper.  I still strongly believe that.

However, that won't always be true.  Fewer and fewer people read print media.  Fewer and fewer people watch the Nightly News.  There will come a time, as the older generation passes on, and the YouTube generation takes hold, when the mainstream media will become increasingly irrelevant.  There is an entire generation of future adults who blog their daily lives.  Right now they may be talking about their latest crush, or how they just got grounded.  But in a few years, they'll be talking about taxes.  Sooner, rather than later, blogs will vote.  And they won't just be blogging.  They'll be providing entire content that we'd never thought of.  For the upcoming generation, blogging, and creating online content for others is as natural as turning on a television.

We're fast approaching a time when blogs will be able to largely abandon the mainstream media, or at the very least, we'll be the ones dictating terms.  Our opinions will be the ones that count... we'll just look to them for the news, such as it is.