Blogging as a form of journalism is highly effective in that it allows grassroots-like spread of information across networks, instead of the conventional top-down flow of information from centralized news sources. In this way, bloggers close to the source of the news can contribute information quickly and accurately. In addition, bloggers can cover a wider range of news than traditional media. After the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, bloggers close to the scene were able to post the news more quickly than traditional news agencies.

It may be argued that the advent of blogging has met the same resistance from established media in the first half of the 21st century as the introduction of radio technology in the first half of the 20th century. As the number of blogs communicating news and information increased, it also faced substantial criticism from traditional journalists. Among these criticisms, the integrity and objectivity of bloggers was questioned heavily. According to John Pavlik of NYU Journalism School, for the majority of journalism’s existence, objectivity has been the “ethical touchstone for journalism,” a requirement of any news source worth following. To answer these criticisms, bloggers such as Rebecca Blood have developed a series of guidelines to establish a journalistic ethos for blogging.

In her book The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog, Blood creates six main guidelines:

  1. Publish as fact only that which you know to be true.
  2. If a material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
  3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
  4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
  5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
  6. Note questionably and unbiased sources.

These guidelines were implemented to establish blogging as a more legitimate form of journalism. Matt Sparkes, in a blog entry, notes that basic journalism practice or accreditation for bloggers may enable them to gain more trustworthiness and professionalism.

Yet like radio, blogging and citizen journalism show an enduring rise in popularity and influence in the global media market, which would not likely be suppressed by critics in the traditional journalist industries. Sparkes notes:

The phenomenon that we call citizen journalism will inevitably rise in adoption; its increasing power and popularity is something that the public will not be willing to give up. The emergence of blogging has been incredibly fast and exponential; millions of blogs exist, which [sic] provides a massive range for readers that wasn’t available before.