What are we doing? (by Violeta without Tobias)

Yesterday I attended to a discussion at the Spanish “Instituto Cervantes” about “Printmedia in the digital age”. As among the participants there was one of the most famous and important Spanish bloggers the panel debated the question if blogs are the enemies of the newspapers? He, the Catalan publicist Arcadi Espada (http://www.arcadi.espasa.com), predicted that newspapers are going to disappear over the next years because they already have lost their former power and influence and more and more people realize that an exchange of opinions free from censorship will only be possible on the blogs. Of course he, who is writing for the newspaper as well, polarized and of course the other journalists disagreed. But they had to admit that the blogs established a certain form of control because the bloggers are observing and commentating the professional journalists, so that it becomes more difficult for them to hide stupidities unnoticed and because in relation to reactions the web is much faster than the newspaper.

Also the bloggers, they mentioned, are able to set trends by posting recommendations, preferences, judgements etc.
Are they?
Probably the discussion was very much settled in the Spanish context where not only the political public but also the media is starkly and inexpiably separated into two antagonized directions.
But are we working on the disappearance of the newspapers? Are we influencing?

ps: Arcadi is also among the founders (but not members) of a young non nationalist Catalan party, which has its seeds in web communication and blog writing. Since November 2006 they are represented in the Catalan parliament with three deputies.
So, dear Edward, if you ever think of founding a political party based on your web activity, keep in mind that there is a successful archetype in Catalonia but I suppose that the members have mostly abandoned their blogs because of a lack of time …