Blogs are growing on me… a lot. Right now, I follow many tech, personal branding and professional development blogs. Don’t forget all of my friends abroad.

While I see the enormous social benefit of blogging, my stomach churns when I read blogs that claim to serve as a source of “news.” I have no idea if the stories I read:

• provide truthful information
• have a bias or act as a neutral source
• bond individuals together or create divides, both social and digital

If social media and blogging continue to evolve and grow, the digital field of communication needs safeguards to ensure that “news” content will move and inform readers instead of potentially feeding them BS.I am not the only person who thinks in this fashion. The FTC recently created a guideline for product endorsements on blogs (read the nitty gritty here). This move is similar to the changes advertising faced in the early 1900s.

My predictions for the future of social media and blogging: muck. Actually, I am referencing the tradition of muckrakers- journalists who work to expose corruption and unethical practices (read the history via wikipedia because I am too lazy to find a “scholarly” source at the moment). I have a strong belief that blogs will arise that dedicate their digital space towards investigating the claims of others and work to expose the “good” from the “bad”.

To put this in perspective, let me ask you a question: have you ever read a blog that presented information you knew was not true? information that was fabricated? information that only showed one side of a story? This type of blogging correlates with Yellow Journalism. Yellow Journalism, according to the late historian Frank Luther Mott in his book American journalism, consist of the following:

• “scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news”
• “lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings”
• “use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts”
• “emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the U.S.)”
• “dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system.”

In my opinion, yellow journalism shares similar qualities with unethical blogs that present fabricated, false information.

So, how do you, as a blogger, prevent yourself from creating a YellowBlog? I have two suggestions (warning: I am not a social media expert or blogging expert, so take everything I say with a grain of salt):

• GIVE CREDIT TO OTHERS Ideas begin somewhere. If you apply information that others compiled, you should cite where you received the information from. This is an elementary concept that some people don’t apply. Penelope Trunk, a professional development blogger with over 45,000 readers, does an AMAZING job of using statistical information and giving credit when she makes claims. When I read her blog post, I understand the breakdown between her own voice/opinion and the ideas of others that she applies to her arguments. If you look at books that focus on scholarly arguments, like The Craft of Research, you can see that Penelope takes the correct approach when writing.

• VERIFY YOUR CLAIMS If you decide that you are going to focus your blog on objective information instead of opinion, make sure that you have evidence that supports your statements. You never know if a reader will comment on your post and debate the validity of your information.