StinkyJournalism, a U.S. media ethics project, recently conducted a study examining how 10 major U.S. newspapers manage the blogs published on their websites, reported journalism.co.uk.

The study found that 404 of 591 (68 percent) blogs published by newspapers were edited, and seven of the 10 newspapers said they edit all blogs. Only eight of the blogs (1 percent) dealt with traditional news topics.

In explaining why the project was conducted, StinkyJournalism wrote, "With the rising popularity of social media, newspapers have also jumped on the bandwagon, setting up blogs, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts. This move was not only necessary to keep up to date with technology, but also to compensate for the loss in sales of the print editions...All major U.S. newspapers have a representative Internet presence and publish much more content online than they could fit into their print editions. Along with this change, social media as an integrated tool plays a role in the news landscape now more than ever. However, these changes also raise questions about ethics, legal issues and journalistic standards."

The newspapers studied were: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA TODAY, San Francisco Chronicle, NEW YORK POST, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and The Boston Globe, according to PR Newswire.

The complete study and results are available here.