SINCE reporting on the proposed Australian Internet filter here and here, it has made me more aware of how we as citizens are becoming more involved in events going on, without the help of the big media giants.

Come to think of it, what happened before the media giants came along?

The media giants saw a market that could be exploited (story telling), and made it a their business.

I’ve had a couple of conversations with people regarding this topic of whom have all said that this is becoming more and more true.

Especially with people expressing opinions through their blogs, and more more predominantly, their social networks now.

You see, that was the problem before we had the Newspapers, the connection gap.

The newspapers fulfilled that gap, they kept us connected, but are not as heavily required anymore.

One thing they many Journalists say they are good at is fact checking, but just watch Media Watch a couple of times and you will find that this is not the case.

Now with online social networks, those gaps of not feeling connected with the world are being filled by blogs and forums.

Some Journalists will still argue that paid content will always be there, but with so many Internet users producing content for free, it’s time to adapt.

I was recently listening to an Interview Sky News did with Alex Albrecht of Revision3.

Alex pointed out that without old media such as the New York Times, there would be no Digg or in that matter Diggnation.

What I think we’ll see in the coming years is people becoming more investigative (such as myself) wanting to get the facts by doing the hard work.

I can honestly say that the last time I watched the TV news for more that 1 minute was a long time ago, probably more than 6 months.

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