Blogger says the future of journalism is online

"In the past, media has been, for the most part, a one-way process, with the 'journalists' telling the people what’s important," Mallasch said.

"The future is more of a discussion between the journalists, the citizen journalists and the citizens.”

Online journalism is still in its beginning stage, according to Mallasch, but he feels that many of the small media sources, those “outside Big Media,” are working toward a more liberated press.

"Online journalism is going to give the media revolution a chance at succeeding, give us a chance at wrangling power from the big media corporations and giving the press back to the people," he said.

Mallasch left a job with Gannett, a large media corporation, to work as a freelance writer and blogger.

"The steady paycheck and health benefits were nice," Mallasch said. "But I was tired of being told I couldn't do something because there wasn't enough revenue potential in it or because corporate was rolling out their own version that we had to use."

Mallasch now describes himself as "a journalist, a poet, and a pilgrim," and codes and designs Web sites in addition to freelancing.

"I'm doing what I love again, though, and for the right reasons," he said. "And that makes it all worth it."

He started his J-Log website back in 2002 as a way to keep his Internet skills sharp. Since then it has grown into a site that is "trying to document, or blog, the revolution as it happens."

"Back in the ... 90s, there was a journalism site that accepted contributions from disgruntled journalists," said Mallasch. "I remember reading about it and wanting to start something similar."

Users can sort the content on his site by clicking on topics ranging from Ethics and Law to Politics. The site even includes a section for Rants.

With nearly 150 people signed up and traffic increasing month to month, Mallasch said the site is steadily gaining support. He plans to continue running the site and hopes it will eventually form a small community of people interested in citizen journalism.

"What I want people to take away from it is that journalism as a whole is in bad shape in this country and needs to be fixed."