The internet has allowed the transfer of information to happen incredibly quickly. Twenty years ago, a news story may take days to reach everyone. Now, it takes a few minutes. The plane crash into the Hudson River in NYC last month was first reported through Twitter. A man who was on a passing boat saw the plane, took a picture with his iPhone, and posted it. He then forgot about it, until he had numerous news organizations wanting to know more.

Services such as Twitter allows news to travel fast. If something happens and someone tweets about it, everyone hears it. Many top news services, including the BBC, all have presence on Twitter, with some employing people to stream through searching for relevant news or updates.

So the internet has changed the way we receive information. Many stories published in print are old news by the time you’ve read them. So is journalism moving online? I’d like to think so.

I never seemed to good at English throughout school. I got two B grades, but they didn’t come easily. As soon as I thought I’d finished with creative writing, analysis etc… I began ed-parry.com. Now, I write regularly for here, Appletell and soon Desktop Vibes. The biggest of these is Appletell; an American website focusing on Apple news and information.

So what defines a journalist? I wouldn’t class myself as one at all, but what about editors for say, Engadget? Their job is to cover news to publish. That sounds fairly similar to a journalist, just simply online, not on paper. But surely that doesn’t matter in this day? I hardly ever pick up a newspaper, but I regularly scan BBC News, and follow the BBC and my local newspaper through Twitter for updates during the day.

I would imagine contributors to solely the BBC News website, are journalists. Bill Thompson is the BBC’s technology journalist. While he writes for printed publications such as Focus Magazine, he also appears a lot through news.bbc.co.uk. He’s a journalist though, right?

I feel as though I’m wondering slightly, so I’ll get to the point. I feel, in this age, a blogger or online writer, is a type of journalist. Although not necessarily by profession. I don’t mean personal bloggers, though. This site is my personal blog. I write about topics that interest myself – not the wider public. But say, at Appletell, I write about the latest happenings – similar to a news website – but focusing on Apple.

Wouldn’t you say that’s journalism?