Blogs are uncontrolled and independent by definition, which has been a critical element in explaining their development and a key distinction from established media with large audiences. At the same time, it is argued this strength of blogs can also turn into their greatest weakness (Rebecca Blood).

Professional journalists work in the context of ethical standards that establish their responsibilities and provide a code of conduct to uphold the integrity of their reporting. As recent incidents at the New York Times and USA Today have shown, this code is a serious matter within the public media when an organization’s credibility and integrity are at stake.

Weblogs, produced by nonprofessionals, have no such rules and there is also no current imperative to adopt any. Nevertheless, activists have taken the initiative to rally behind basic standards in the blogosphere as well, in an effort to sustain a credible and useful source of information.

In writing about the blogging phenomenon, Rebecca Blood was one of the first to publish six guidelines for personal bloggers to remind them of the responsibilities they have to their audience, their blogging peers, and the integrity of the medium as a whole:

If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.

Publicly correct any misinformation.

Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.

Disclose any conflict of interest.

Note questionable and biased sources.

Her commentary on each of the above can be found here, an excerpt of her book “The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog.”

While most of these resonate with standard codes of journalism, the fourth rule points to a unique property of publishing on the web: the impermanence of online information. A page that is published today may be removed tomorrow or changed entirely in its content. This adds to the responsibilities of an author, but it also raises questions about the value and integrity of published information over time.

The extent to which bloggers will be self-regulating can hardly be determined for the individual or the community as a whole. Nevertheless, advocates for the potentials of blogging argue that regulation will be paramount to protect the integrity of the movement. If blogs lose their credibility because of negative examples and perceptions, their future development could be stopped short in its early stages.