Decline in science journalism and rise of the science bloggers

Good round-up article on Nature's website about the cuts in "traditional" science journalism - and the rise of "citizen-journalist" science bloggers.

What do you think? Do "new media" tools that allow scientists to engage mass audiences directly offer a great opportunity? Is a decline in science journalists worrying, if it results in more cutting-and-pasting of press releases by mainstream reporters?

Nature has produced a new "policy" on blogging to supposedly promote it as an activity by scientists - but I'm not convinced it will work; I've shared my reasons here in their discussion forum on the subject.

For those interesting in blogging about their field, there's some useful advice and comments from those giving it a go here.