A lot of people have been trying to figure out the difference between bloggers and journalist. There seems to be a feeling among some that bloggers are less important than journalist. Others feel journalists are behind the times...
Truth be told, the argument comparing bloggers and journalist isn't even one we should be having. They are extremely different from each other in certain aspects, but extremely similar in others. Each fulfills a different role. In reality, nothing stops a blogger from being a journalist and vice versa - it's just a matter of semantics.
However, in the spirit of the argument, I think it prudent that we attempt to define and separate bloggers and journalists...
Defining a Blogger
In its most simple forms, the definition of a blogger must be someone that writes a blog. But that's not really enough for us to continue. So how can we extrapolate that? We need to identify what a blog is and make some assumptions and generalities.
The Merriam Webster definition of blog:
The interesting part of the definition to keep in mind is the idea that a blog is personal. Also the definition doesn't say anything about fact or bias. You could say that a blog does not need to be the full truth; instead it could be "reflections" and "comments".
I don't think it's fair to define blogs and bloggers from the point of resources (some are extremely well financed ie. Mashable and TechCrunch) and topic (Huffingtonpost covers "news" but is still considered a blog).
So in the end the only true definition of a blogger is someone that writes a blog. What's a blog? It's an online journal that a writer can use to share his ideas and thoughts. Therefore, a blogger is someone that writes his ideas and thoughts online.