<p>We have studied the effects that blogs have on the society through interviews with influential bloggers, a news director and the founder of Sweden’s largest blogprovider.</p><p>Existing theoretical work by other researchers have been used as a starting point to our thesis. Via a deductive method we then proceeded to test these existing models and viewpoints on the reality.</p><p>Through our research we have concluded that blogs, if they co-operate, have an agenda-setting function, and that they can affect newspapers to write about certain topics.</p><p>We have also discussed blogs role as media watch dogs. Gunilla Sax, news director, questions the blog world’s ability to fully cover all media, and to deliver a systematic and just review of the media. Through her reasoning we have come to think that it is vital the blog society continues to evolve and mature, and we suggest that there might be a need for some sort of interest organization to coordinate the highly decentralized blog community.</p><p>Blogs can either be seen as a complement to the news-industry, or as an alternative. Respondents reflect about several differences amongst newspapers and blogs, mainly regarding the methods of work. However, they also confirm what, for example, Bruns (2008) and Våge et al. (2005) writes about the co-dependence that exists between regular newsmedia and the blog community.</p>

We have studied the effects that blogs have on the society through interviews with influential bloggers, a news director and the founder of Sweden’s largest blogprovider. Existing theoretical work by other researchers have been used as a starting point to our thesis. Via a deductive method we then proceeded to test these existing models and viewpoints on the reality. Through our research we have concluded that blogs, if they co-operate, have an agenda-setting function, and that they can affect newspapers to write about certain topics. We have also discussed blogs role as media watch dogs. Gunilla Sax, news director, questions the blog world’s ability to fully cover all media, and to deliver a systematic and just review of the media. Through her reasoning we have come to think that it is vital the blog society continues to evolve and mature, and we suggest that there might be a need for some sort of interest organization to coordinate the highly decentralized blog community. Blogs can either be seen as a complement to the news-industry, or as an alternative. Respondents reflect about several differences amongst newspapers and blogs, mainly regarding the methods of work. However, they also confirm what, for example, Bruns (2008) and Våge et al. (2005) writes about the co-dependence that exists between regular newsmedia and the blog community.