Blogs are increasingly popular to publish and read, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, but their rising popularity coalesces with controversy in the media and workplace.
Eight million U.S. adults created web logs or similar online diaries by the end of 2004, according to two November 2004 telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which studies the effects of the Internet on such aspects of society as families and communities.
Bloggers tend to be casual with their postings, unlike when writing a report either for school or for work, said Mary Madden, a research specialist from Pew.
There is "an assumed veil of anonymity with a blog," she said.
However, this anonymity is not guaranteed, as search engines often uncover the identities of bloggers.
"All it takes is one co-worker breaching that anonymity, and once [the identity is] out, it's out," Madden said.
If employers don't like what they read, the responsible employee can be fired or asked to take down the blog.
The Washington Post reported that Rachel Mosteller, a journalist at the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun, was fired the day after she posted a comment about employee awards she thought were trivial.
Mosteller's blog did not name her place of employment, bosses or co-workers. She wrote under the pseudonym Sarcastic Journalist.
An employer can demand loyalty from an employee as a condition of employment, said Elliott Milstein, law professor at the Washington College of Law.
"If you are critical of an employer in print, which includes a blog, you can be fired," he said.
Kathleen Getz, associate professor of management in the Kogod School of Business, said that according to law, an employer can fire a worker anytime for anything.
"Some companies expect blind loyalty from their employees," she said. "For supervisors who can't take any kind of criticism," firing employees is not surprising.
The significance of what employees blog about in relation to their employers is the most important thing to be considered when examining these cases, Getz said.
The Durham Herald-Sun situation sounds suspicious because Mosteller was fired over a comment that did not seem too libelous and did not give away company secrets, she added.
While blogging has become more popular over the last year, only 38 percent of Internet users have any idea of what a blog is, Madden said.
Because it is relatively new to the online world, the blog is still a mystery to some Internet users. Even those who are familiar with them are still unsure what proper blog protocol is or if it exists.
The ethics of blogging have come into question recently surrounding the resignation of Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive.
At the Davos international conference in Switzerland, Jordan said U.S. troops targeted journalists in Iraq. He clarified his statement later after prodding from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), but bloggers started criticizing his response and retraction.
The bloggers acted as reporters, according to The Washington Post, gathering information from those who had attended the conference and further publicizing the controversy that most likely would have died down.
"People are still figuring out the social norms ... of that," Madden said.
Traditional media outlets have a mixed relationship with blogs, and one usually pro-blog newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, criticized the bloggers for demanding Jordan's resignation in an editorial.
"It does not speak well of CNN that it apparently allowed itself to be stampeded by this Internet and talk-show crew," The Journal said.
