The Blog Debate

Recently, I was talking with someone about their homework. Yes, strange but I really enjoy hearing other people's topics for papers. Yes, I'm weird. However, the prompt was whether or not bloggers should be considered to be journalists. As a blogger, and a journalist for my school's newspaper, I would like to weigh in my own opinions. Why? Because I like to do that.
I can see why people would think that bloggers wouldn't be reliable sources. We write our opinions, and rarely use the facts. However, I think that people who are bloggers are more reliable sources because since we write for ourselves we are not tainted with advertising. We say what's on our mind, the truth, and nothing but the truth. That's why I don't have advertising in my blog. I like to give my opinions uncensored, something that I know when I'm employed will change.
 Newspaper and advertising work hand in hand; if someone were to give a paper or a magazine a lot of money in advertising revenue, than the person wouldn't bash that person or their product.
Bloggers also write because their more passionate about it. They write for themselves, and their writing in my experiences are very passionate about their subjects. The amount of blogs out there are insane. Some people blog about their lives. Others write a specific theme. I know lifestyle bloggers, and I know DIY bloggers. There's a lot of blogging going on in the internet world.
In addition to being a blogger, I do consider myself to be a journalist. That means, I do follow a specific code of ethics, and try to remain unbiased. I do try to carry over that same mantra in my blog. I do try to get the facts right before publishing. Blogging has gotton to be a bad rep because there are some people out there willing to create lies. However, that's not the case with every blogger, and that should be stated as a fact.
 I think that they should be considered to be a journalist. However, I do not think that they should be used as the only source used for news. I do think that we should get credit because it takes a lot to run a blog that makes you be read. It's a struggle in my opinion, but because we as bloggers have a devotion to what we do, it keeps us coming back for more blogging.
At the end of the day, we are all entitled to our own opinions to this. I'm just stating mine. However, I do think that before we come to them, we should at least hear what every side has to say.