Is there a future for Political Journalists?

As Christmas draws ever closer I must confess to not having done much over the last couple of days. I did make an attempt to start reading a book entitled 'Mediated Politics - Communications in the Future of Democracy' Edited by W. Lance Bennet and Robert M. Entman, the book draws on a wide range of contributions to look in to how the new media environment we live in will alter political communications. I haven't read enough of it yet to pass any comments.

One of the issues that has really come to the fore of my thoughts concerns the challenges to political journalists. With a greater ability for people and politcians to speak directly to each other and with access to so many different sources allowing individuals to mediate information themselves, will the political journalist become redundant?

I shall have to try and track a few down to see what they think.