Blogging has become popular in recent years. It is versatile enough to be used as a source of news, as well as an outlet for personal issues. But what is the point of blogging?  And more importantly, is it really relevant to our society and current events?

When taking credibility into account what can be said of blogs? Trusting something that is used as a news source and gossip mill is not necessarily a good idea. A virtual diary is one thing but thinking that others embrace the same feelings is as pointless as it is ignorant.

There are other outlets for news and for personal expression. Speaking as a journalist, I find trying to pass a blog off as news completely distasteful and unethical. When writing news and displaying it for others to see, credibility and ethics are at the forefront of importance.

Take a moment to think about it. Should a blog that attempts to deliver news while also expressing opinion sound credible? Having a blog is fine but making it out to be a news source is unacceptable.

Journalists operate under a certain code of ethics that is taken seriously. Blogging does not necessarily have such ethical concerns. There is always the option to fall back on the fact that the content is a blog post. It does not matter what someone says because it was just a post on a blog and they may not have to answer for their comments.

Journalism is about accruing information via interviews and organizing it in a form that readers both understand and respect. A blog can be viewed as an extension of social media outlets.

Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are well-known social media outlets and they are appropriate areas for expressing news-related opinions. Anyone can post news and opinion throughout an account on any of the above outlets.

The same standard applies to blogging. The ethics go unchecked and the Internet is plagued with blogs on just about every topic.  News, entertainment, opinion and sports are just a few broader topics.

Blogs are fine in the sense that they have provide individuals with the opportunity to express their views adequately, but they should not be called reliable.

Blogs are where many people go to look for spoilers. They are also sources of inaccurate information. I’m not saying that newspapers or newspaper websites are 100 percent accurate at all times. However, the attention to detail and respect for accuracy is more prevalent in journalism.

Tabloids do nothing for the image of the general media but the point is that blogs can go off on any tangent. When people hear about a scandal and then discover the source of the information, the response is all too often, “Oh, it was just that blog.”

Some blog writers actually feature interviews and credible outside information but those are few and far in between.

The writing style of blogs is different than journalistic writing and that is not necessarily a bad thing. However, when that writing is full of grammatical errors and profanity, it cannot be held at the same standard as professional reporting.

Today’s society has embraced blogging as a form of expression, news and entertainment. Taking blogging seriously would make the content credible, but blogging has already created a scenario that is contrary to that goal.

Anyone can write a blog post. Anyone can be a source of information but not all sources of information can be credible. The fact that there are entire blogs devoted to celebrities and their fashion is absolutely astonishing.

Blogs, often used as web diaries, share too much information at times. Bloggers tend to over share in their writing and thus distance an audience or develop stalkers. It is important to be careful about what is being shared online and blogs are no different.

Writing is an art form to be taken seriously and blogs do not accomplish that. Our society has many other avenues for expressing opinions and delivering news. Why do we need blogs? Until a code of ethics and system of determining what goes beyond preference is established, blogs should not be such a big part of our society.