Everyone is blogging these days. At least, everyone in our Ethics class is blogging these days. I recently read an article about a stay-at-home mother who made big bucks by turning into a blogger mom. Heather Armstrong has become one of the most influential bloggers with her blog Dooce.com standing at No. 59 amongst the Web’s Top 100 blogs. Even her husband quit his job to managing advertising for the site. Together the couple generates an estimated $40,000 a month in revenue from huge companies like BMW and Verizon. Clearly, blogging has become a full time job for some.
When all corporate and entrepreneurial companies need to adhere to some degree of ethics, I think even bloggers have to conduct in an ethical way. I wondered if blogging is same as being a journalist and if bloggers have the right of bias. I came across some literatures that claim that blogging can be used as a means of journalism but it is not journalism. Does that mean a blogger do not have be constraint herself or himself in any way whatsoever? A blogger and also a doctoral fellow at University of North Carolina, raises several ongoing debates on the blogging issue. He calls his project C.O.B.E. (Code of Blogging Ethics) and has listed a few ethical guidelines for bloggers (professional and otherwise). Hopefully, his outlines will be helpful for our team of bloggers at BUAD840!

References and links:
1. “The blogger mom, in your face”, Work & Family by Sue Shellenbarger, Wall Street Journal
2. Blogging Ethics by Martin http://blogethics2004.blogspot.com/
3. Is blogging journalism? Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/2005/04/29/is_blogging_journalism.php
4. Blogging as a form of journalism http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958873.php