DENVER -- At the entrance of "The Big Tent" -- a refuge for bloggers a short walk from the Pepsi Center -- there's a signup sheet for visitors from newspapers and television and others of their ilk.

"Traditional Media," it says.

It's a subtle putdown, but illustrative of a larger truth: the "new media" -- the Internet journalists, the V-loggers, the satellite radio hosts -- are on the ascent at this convention. They're the ones with the swagger, the ones with the coolest parties and the wonkiest panel discussions.

At "The Big Tent," funded in part by Google and progressive blog DailyKos to provide a home -- and for $100, unlimited food and beer -- for hundreds of uncredentialed bloggers, there have been dozens of workshops and seminars featuring big media names like Paul Krugman, Arianna Huffington and Ted Sorensen. Then there are the more whimsically themed discussions that nonetheless are all about one thing: bypassing the mainstream media.

"Move over, mainstream media, it's the voter's turn," says the blurb for an event called: "Tapping the Creative Community: The Power of Voter Generated Media."

To be sure, there are television satellite trucks parked in the parking lots around the Pepsi Center, blow-dried anchormen speaking earnestly into cameras and dignified, old hands like Bob Schieffer of CBS roaming about the hall.

But in the media security lines snaking outside the convention venue, the faces are mostly young, the equipment mostly laptops, and the credentials for Web sites you may have never heard of.

Of course, if you're a political junkie living in New York City, you've probably heard of a site called "Room 8" (www.r8ny.com). There, a blogger named "Gatemouth" -- known in real life as Howard Graubard -- is blogging from Denver as an officially accredited blogger by the Democratic National Committee.

"I was kind of surprised when they picked us because we're one of the few centrist political blogs," said Mr. Graubard, who was relaxing in a bloggers' lounge in the basement of the Pepsi Center. "I don't write traditional journalism," he added. "I write opinion, but I mostly try to be factually based.

"We create buzz in New York," he added. "We have an impact beyond the daily papers, because we can publish a lot of information that might not be accessible anywhere else. People are always saying, 'Have you read Room 8 or Daily Politics or Politicker today?' "

There are actually 120 officially accredited bloggers this year, from all 50 states. Most of them are progressive-leaning political blogs who not only post their impressions of the goings on but also post videos on YouTube, with the assistance of a large DNC communications team, headed by Chris Hughes, a 24-year-old co-founder of Facebook who now directs online organizing for the Obama campaign.

"I don't know that Barack Obama is giving special treatment to bloggers," said Bill Menezes, editorial director of Colorado Media Matters, a media watchdog group, "but there's been a recognition by the Democratic party that this is a significant new information source for a huge number of people who can't be ignored."

These bloggers aren't mistaken for traditional journalists -- who are supposed to be objective -- but they don't care.

"I think the whole idea of 'fair and balanced' is [baloney]," said Gerald Weinand, of TurnMaineBlue.com. "Newspaper reporters are frequently just as biased as any advocacy journalist, and at the same time they don't provide the same kind of in-depth information that we can, which is why political blogs are more attractive to consumers of media."

Plus, he added, "if you post something not knowing the details, someone with a Ph.D. in that subject might post with the missing data. Interaction is really a key ingredient here."

Nearby, Steve Krakauer, 24, was hunched over his computer blogging about the convention for TVNewser.com "I try to do seven to eight posts a day," he said wearily. "I'm not sure blogging is going to be a career for me, but I love politics and I love seeing how all this stuff plays out."

Armed with a laptop, a tiny video camera and an iPhone, he said with a trace of pride in his voice, "I can do video interviews and get them up on the site almost immediately."

Being "new media" at this convention doesn't necessarily mean you have to be young. The average blogger on DailyKos.com is 47 years old -- and upstairs on the fifth floor of the Pepsi Center, a shirtsleeved Larry Kane disproves the cliche of the blogger as a callow youth.

A longtime fixture in Philadelphia's television and radio market, Mr. Kane is 66 years old, "but I'm still in there pitching," he said, fingering his iPhone. Along with colleague Robert Traynham, he's not only providing reports for KYW Radio but also live on-air, online and "on demand" coverage of the convention for Comcast's CN8 Network, along with a video blog on www.CN8.tv.

"I was old media and now I'm new media," he joked, noting that with his video blog, he and Mr. Traynham roam the hallways for behind-the-scenes color. "We do everything from political analysis to humor. It's great."

Down the hall, Rebecca Roberts is relishing her role as a host on XM satellite radio's show "POTUS '08," which is broadcasting live gavel-to-gavel coverage of both conventions through the general election.

"We're a niche broadcast," she said, whose listeners are political junkies. "It's a small slice of the market -- we're narrowcasters, really -- but it's a total luxury to be able to talk to political junkies about the election."

Slowly but surely, the mainstream media has caught on that there's something to this, Mr. Menezes said, noting that among the 15,000 accredited journalists wandering the grounds of the Pepsi Center and Denver's streets this week are bloggers and video journalists -- including Post-Gazette photographer Steve Mellon and cartoonist Rob Rogers -- who also happen to be members of the old, traditional "mainstream media."

"The Democratic Party recognizes there are huge constituencies out there who can be tapped via the Internet," he said. "The mainstream media has recognized these constituencies too."

Perhaps the most telling example of that came earlier this week, when a Rocky Mountain News photographer videotaped a police officer on the streets of Denver pushing an anti-war protester to the ground and posted the video on the newspaper's Web site.

"That was just mind-blowing," Mr. Menezes said. "In the old days, or even a year ago, that video probably would have been shot by a blogger. But that video was by a Rocky Mountain News photographer, which tells you that old media is now trying to become new media too. "

"Bloggers are a significant and much-needed complement to the mainstream media, and I think in 2012 you're going to see many, many more of them wandering around the conventions -- with credentials."