"…having a journalist “badge of tribal fealty” enables one access to public officials and records, while scribes with the “blogger” label induces those same authority figures to cast aside requests for information that the public has a right to know. … Governments must inject more transparency into their activities and records, but this task may be an inherent anathema to those holding power."

AZspot: Blogging and Journalism

At the same time, most organizations are pretty lax on their definition of “press.” When I was in j-school, we needed press credentials to get into the county jail to write a story on overcrowding there. Our professor made us nice ID cards that nevertheless identified us as contributors to one of the j-school’s blogs. The fact that we had verification that we were writing for something, though, was apparently enough.