Use of English PRO

(0) A blog (an abbreviation of weblog) is an online diary (1) ............ which a series of posts are displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blogging emerged in the 1990s (2) ............ technology was created that allowed people to easily create (3) ............ own web pages, and the first blogs were published on platforms such as LiveJournal. Popular blog platforms in use today include Tumblr, WordPress and Google's Blogger. Typically, bloggers write text and upload images to share (4) ............ their friends and family, or a wider community of followers. Most blogs have some sort of focus, whether it's books, films, gardening, music, or a particular career, and generally have small readerships. Some blogs, however, achieve greater significance. Salam Pax, the 'Baghdad Blogger', became world famous before and during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, with his account of daily life in that city. Blogging can be a good way to further one's career, too, but (5) ............ are dangers. Employees have lost their jobs for their unfavourable blog descriptions of colleagues, or for inadvertently revealing confidential information. In the news sphere, blogging has become important as traditional newspapers increasingly go (6) ............ of business. This has been blamed (7) ............ a decline in standards of reporting as many political bloggers are not trained journalists and so do not adhere (8) ............ professional journalistic standards.