ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Xcel Center played host to about 2,380 Republican delegates and another 2,227 alternates, assorted party guests and VIPs. But those numbers paled in comparison to the onslaught of about 13,000 people accredited as part of media organizations covering the convention. The hordes included reporters, engineers, photographers, bloggers and support staffs.

Some of the most sought-after autographs and photo ops were of TV news personalities. Early each evening, groups of delegates and RNC guests with valued floor passes regularly turned their backs on the podium to crowd around the CNN podium, watching Wolf Blitzer and others fill the airwaves live before their eyes. The Fox News studio was a favorite among the conservative crowd.

When NBC's Andrea Mitchell or CBS's Bob Scheiffer and their camera crews tried to snake through the maze of delegates, they were often stopped for a handshake or requests to take a picture. Even other reporters lined up to snap photos of Katie Couric in her convention anchor chair.

Skyboxes filled with TV, radio, newspaper and web paraphernalia -- as well as people -- towered over the convention floor, and that was just the tip of the media iceberg.

Roy Wilkins Auditorium and River Centre, buildings connected to the Xcel, were overflowing with curtained cubicles and huge media work spaces for thousands of radio talk shows and behind-the-scenes journalists, their support staffs, computers and banks of TVs. The Associated Press alone brought about 100 people to St. Paul for the event.

Jeff Kent, director of the Press Photographers' Gallery, said they had credentialed "journalists from all over the world, including the Xinhua News Agency of China."

He also explained that the responsibility for granting credentials at both political conventions was given to the same organizations that handle access on Capitol Hill: full-time employees of the United States Congress. "We are a nonpartisan office," he explained.

There are four "galleries" responsible for distributing official press credentials: radio and TV, periodical press (weekly or monthly publications), daily press gallery (daily newspapers and wire services) and the photographers' gallery. There is a fifth group for "special press," which handles media that does not fall into the other categories, including college newspapers, bloggers and, for this event, Republican party media.

This gallery system was established in the 1870s to settle a controversy over who was a real journalist. The dispute was escalated to the Speaker of the House and Congress, who decided the journalists should elect members of their own Washington Press corps to police and decide the issues.

And the organizations are getting new controversies these days over whether and when bloggers and other citizen reporters should be given official credentials.

For this event, the Republican Convention Web site stated it would embrace bloggers: "The 2008 Republican National Convention will utilize numerous mediums -- both emerging and traditional -- to share our nominee's vision with the American people. We have a great appreciation for bloggers and the ever-increasing role new media has in providing real-time information and shaping public opinion." They did not make public how many bloggers were actually granted access.

And, as if all that coverage was not enough, the RNC site had its own pages on Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Ustream.tv, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, although most of those were not seeing a lot of real-time traffic. Maybe the public was bombarded enough on traditional TV, radio, Web and newspapers with convention coverage.