Bloggers as journalists

Media attention to blogs has grown in proportion to the increase in the number of blogs published. According to a study of blog influence (2004) found that only eleven news articles published between 1995 and 1999 used the term "blog"; by 2003 that number had grown to 647. Part of the interest of the mainstream media stems from the perception of blogging as an alternative form of journalism.

However, although some of the most read A-list bloggers are professional journalists, most bloggers would not call themselves journalists and do not even dream of becoming journalists. Their writing would not qualify as journalism because most blogs "focus on narrow subject matter of interest to a select but circumscribed nicntain bona fide news are largely derivative, posting links to other blogs and, in many cases, print journalism" (a study in 2003).