A different kind of journalism
The most popular blogs, as the research project from Panteion showed, are those that broaden the arena of information and public discourse that has been shaped by the media. Asked whether they considered blogs to be a form of journalism, 33 percent of the Greek bloggers questioned said that they did, 11 percent expressed no opinion and 51 percent said they did not. However, 72 percent did say that they spent extra time crosschecking information they were planning to post, 73 percent say that they often or very often included links to sources, and 52 percent said they simply mentioned news items. Back to basics As Karambasis pointed out, bloggers «are going back to the basics of journalism, which is to record public discourse. The traditional media filter the news. Blogs filter all the information that is available on the Internet.» Not all bloggers are interested in politics or the media. In fact the majority of blogs do not deal with public life but with private matters. As Karambasis noted, the fact that politics and the media are not high-priority issues for some bloggers does not mean that what they are doing is not journalism. The most popular blogs are those that focus on politics, science, technology and public issues in general. Bloggers who go by their own name have usually been involved with the Internet for a long time and tend to maintain high standards of journalistic practice. They are also more likely to deal with public issues. By contrast, bloggers who use pseudonyms tend to deal more with private matters. The ratio of blogs with pseudonyms to blogs with real names is around 60:40. Of that 40 percent, 18 percent use a slightly altered version of their own name.
