According to a new study, 52 percent of bloggers consider themselves journalists, up from 2009 when, according to TechCrunch, only one in three made the same claim.

I’m not really sure what to make of this “news.”

Sure, there are “official” news blogs (every news outlet has at least one now), there are the local blogs which are fall into that category (the Gothamist sites for example, which include Torontoist in my own backyard). But that’s all I can think of.

Is that 52 percent? Likely not.

No doubt, many bloggers consider themselves citizen journalists, and there’s no way to tell if this study made a differential between the two vocations. I would assume that bloggers who have had their stuff republished on, or linked to by, professional news organizations feel that adds to their credibility as a “journalist.” I can’t say it does.

I’m not saying that 52 percent of bloggers aren’t journalists because they didn’t go to school for journalism (because I didn’t go to school for journalism), but there is a lot of training to be done.

Many blogs have a slant and are not unbiased. Which is fine, newspapers aren’t completely unbiased either (that’s what columnists and editorials are for), but when covering a story, one cannot ascribe to either side in said story. I don’t know that all of these 52 percent of bloggers would be do that (or necessarily have the foresight to do that). Put plainly: there is more to journalism than putting in your own two cents. Journalism is more likely taking away your two cents from the story.

That being said, this number could be so much higher because more bloggers are making money through their blog than last year (20 percent, up four percent from last year). So it would be easy to assume that bloggers who are making money from said blog, are calling themselves journalists because of it (because if you say you blog for a living, you might as well be telling people you are a professional video game player — the look they’d give you is about the same).

The question I have to ask myself is: would I consider myself I journalist if I was not one before I became a blogger? I would like to think not. While this site provides commentary on current affairs and entertainment news, I cannot say it is journalism. I am working on more journalistic pieces to be published here, but those are things that take time — something most bloggers do not afford themselves.

It’s actually a funny little conundrum when you think about it — you don’t have to be a journalist to blog, but nowadays you have to blog to be a journalist.