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The article discusses online journalistic media formats with an emphasis on blogs. It asserts that the Internet has expanded the ways in which people can participate in journalism. Blogs, wikis, online social networks, forums, chat rooms, instant messaging, and news groups represent what has come to be known as social media, the article says. Social media have led to so-called citizen or participatory journalism, in which the power of public communication, circulation of information, and the setting of agendas has been devolved from traditional media entities to citizens, the article adds. Blogs as a journalistic medium are examined in detail.

The article reports on efforts by Steffen Leidel and Elena Ern to improve the quality of content on Latin American blogs and related forms of on-line citizen journalism through "blog re-visto" (www.revisto.de), a project of the German entity Deutsche Welle Akademie. It distinguishes between citizen news gathering and professional journalism, noting that news presented according to journalistic principles carries the highest quality, credibility, and overall value. Finding that Internet connectivity is increasing and improving in Latin America, the article describes the greatest challenge to citizen reporting as ensuring content quality.