Last week NewAssignment.Net interviewed Fabrice Florin of Newstrust about his experiment in rating the news online. In this post our correspondent, Muhammad Saleem, shares how this relates to blogging.

Blogs are not governed by the same principles that govern traditional journalism. In fact, they are not governed at all. This is because most bloggers don’t consider themselves to be journalists reporting the news, rather they are providing an outlet for conversation and promoting dialogue.

This means bloggers are able to write things that would be impermissible in traditional media outlets, and this information can be without any factual basis and rife with bias, which raises an important question. How can you know if a particular site is trustworthy?

To Fabrice Florin of NewsTrust, the difference between a journalist and a blogger is irrelevant.

“After a certain point, it is not even about being a good journalist. It is about being a good citizen. I think the basic rules of public discourse imply that fairness, evidence, and such principles are really what make a good citizen, not just a good journalist.

If you are going to make statements and profess certain opinions, it behooves you as well as the people that are listening to you to back them up with factual evidence. And if you don’t back your statements up, then quite frankly, as a citizen to citizen, I’m not sure I trust you that much. So even though you are not a journalist, (as a blogger) you are still a citizen, and therefore governed by a code of behavior. It’s fine if you don’t want to be a journalist, but still try to be fair, try to be factual, try to take into account viewpoints other than your own, and present them in a reasonable way.”

NewsTrust’s mission is to make every piece of journalism, produced by a blog or a major news organization, subject to a rating based on the quality of the writing.

“Research shows that when people try to evaluate a news story, they form an immediate opinion, in seconds. They look at the source, and ask themselves, “Do I trust that source?” And right there, half the judgment is made. The second thing they look at, is “Does this story say anything that I agree with? Does it match my preconceived beliefs?” And that is how we, as human beings, form our initial opinions about news stories and news sources.”

The service helps you get past that initial gut reaction and, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the content of a story, makes you judge a news item on its own merits. They do this by looking at the methodology:

1. Is this report presenting opinions as facts?
2. Are they presenting a balanced viewpoint?
3. Do they give you the context?

The goal of the service is to ensure that the reader knows the quality-rating (via NewsTrust) of the piece that they are about to read before it’s read. By looking at the rating you can know whether the author’s reporting is accurate news with insightful commentary or is repeating inaccurate information that is tainted with bias.

But blogs aren’t the only source of information that can be tainted by inaccuracy or bias.

Some professional journalists, who reach a very wide audience, cross the line daily. Using online tools and the help of volunteers, NewsTrust is going to try and do something about that.

Muhammad Saleem is a Netscape Navigator and writes on his own blog The Mu Life where he studies the social bookmarking phenomenon.