The obsolescence of newspapers and journalism?

Much has been made of the growing popularity and power of bloggers with regards to news reporting and the lessening effectiveness of newspapers. Some are saying that newspapers may be losing their relevance to the bloggers. That may be true but mainly because people are reading news on the internet more than from newspapers and even then, a lot of people do browse the online forms of media outlets like BBC, MSNBC and even the notorious Fox News.

I don't agree with this assumption at all. The faults of mainstream media have been well publicised and critiqued as mainstream media is perceived to be pandering to whims of and controlled by agendas of government and corporate interests as well as riveting but frivolous headlines to draw viewers/readers like the Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson cases.
However I think that too little credit has been given to the original role of journalism and
media in society.

The reporting of news and events in the world is mostly done by journalists and media organisations.
While bloggers link to each other, they also derive most of their news and opinions references/links from media sources. Without the news from media journalists and correspondents on or near the spot, bloggers would not be able to do their work effectively.
So it's not like bloggers are replacements or competitors with journalists but rather serve to complement each other in that bloggers can offer a more opinionated view as well as provide fact checks to works of journalism to prevent media disinformation such as happened with the revelation of White House "reporter" Jeff Gannon as a member of an alleged pro-Republican organisation.

While there's some serious problems regarding the credibility of journalism, blogs by themselves are not the answer but fixing and improving upon the quality of reporting is. There is definitely a role for blogs in the media environment and inspite of the controversies including CNN's Eason Jordan for instance, weblogs can only be seen as a benefit to newsreaders.
Blogging is not a replacement or alternative but a modern, substantial enhancement for journalism.

See here to read aout the conference on blogging, journalism and credibility that was held at Harvard University in January to discuss the current and changing media environment in which people are still trying to determine how best blogs fit in with journalism and big media.