What does 'personal journalism' mean, and what are the consequences?

According to Wall, bloggers who use  a personal narrative style, who share personal accounts of events and include personal information in their blog posts can be seen as non-professional as they are not remaining impartial during their report.

On the flip side Wall notes that use of personal opinion can also create a sense of intimacy between the blogger and the viewers and conveys "a sense of transparency" of "someone who is not manipulated by a corporate boss"(Wall 2005 p.165).

For people who are not totally trusting of news corporations, this sense of intimacy can  make personal journalists seem more credible as their reports are not seen to be tainted or influenced by the corporate world.

Wall, M. 2005. Blogs of war: Weblogs as news. Journalism 6 (2): 153 - 172. http://jou.sagepub.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/6/2/153.full.pdf+html (accessed 8/11/11).