Arizona State business journalism chair Tim McGuire takes on the view that Twitter is taking the craft down the wrong road. His latest post recognizes that Twitter, like all instant information services, can skimp on the discipline of verification.

But he also notes that journalists have wanted exactly a tool like Twitter forever. "Twitter is a wonderful tool which, like any tool, can be used or abused," he notes.

Now that journalists have it, they simply have to learn how to use it properly.

"What is crucial is that all the things journalists know about truth, accuracy, checking out stories, sources, facts and context remain sacred.  Just because there is now a tool that allows us to regurgitate everything we hear when we hear it does not mean that’s good journalism," he writes.

The Old Media New Tricks site offers three tips for news organizations looking to enter the location-based social media sphere. They're basic, smart and compelling.

1. Create multimedia tours with a raft of local landmarks and must-do things.
2. Post links to reviews on location pages.
3. Participate in sales initiatives on location-based sites.

As location-based media develops in the months ahead, news organizations will need to examine how --- and not if --- they participate.

A study being released this week at the One Young World conference in London aims to identify trends among young people.

Some of them worth noting:
1. Immediacy.
2. Local trumps global and is intense.
3. Transparency.
4. Cheap or free for most things, but will pay a lot for what they want.
5. Entertainment required in everything.
6. Environmental authenticity.
7. Not left-wing, just anti-multinational.
8. Media savvy, suspicious of bias.
9. Indulgent but aware of the value of altruism.

The boom continues for online video in the United States. The audience measurement firm comScore says 178 million Americans watched video online in December.

Some 33.2 billion videos were seen in the month. YouTube is the largest video outfit on the Web, with more than 13 billion viewed, but it was the first month in which Hulu served up more than one billion views.

The math is astounding: The 178 million watched an average of 187 videos in the month.

The social media application, Twitter, is being treated little differently than the arrival of Facebook, the boom of the Web or the introduction of email. On the surface, without much experience, it appears to occupy, rather than nourish time.

Journalist and consultant Steve Buttry has a good post on the challenge of making the most of Twitter in the least amount of time.

He has some general principles:

1. Don't drink the entire stream. Use some tools to filter it.
2. Integrate Twitter into your day and ensure you stay disciplined in using it.
3. Use it as a news source, with your cell phone, and with lists to sort through others in a particular field.

"I am sympathetic to the challenges of time management using Twitter or any new tool that demands our attention. I am not sympathetic to time management as an excuse for refusing to stay current with the demands of digital journalism," he writes.

In recent years social network applications have taken on significance as the environment in which journalism does its job. Social media offer resources, engagement and distribution, among other things.

Now a study from George Washington University affirms and quantifies the trend in newsrooms to embrace social media. The report found 56 per cent of those surveyed believed social media had value in their work. Of those, nearly 90 per cent had used them.

That still is slightly less than half the total, but it's a growing number year over year and ought to continue to do so.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a thorough report on the social media habits of younger and older Americans alike.

Among its major findings:

1. Blogging is in decline among young people but up among older ones.
2. Three-quarters of young people are using social networks.
3. Half of older adults are using social networks and have more than one user profile.
4. Facebook is the most common platform for older adults and Twitter is also an experience for older adults and not teens.
5. About six in 10 younger adults use the Internet for information on current issues and politics.

It's an exhaustive report that concludes mobile is already enormous and bound to grow further.

Dan Gillmor's work on journalism as a cornerstone to democracy has had several applications, most recently in the generation online of book chapters on themes involving the craft.

His latest post identifies principles of journalism education, a subject in great debate at the moment as schools come to grips with multiplatform work and industry comes to grips with the need for more fluent participants in digital media.

Gillmor makes several prescriptions, but I'll select four main concepts:

1. Break down the age-old tracks of print, broadcast and online. Make it one.
2. Teach databases, statistics, research methodology, entrepreneurship and business as part of the journalism education.
3. Open up smaller programs for local teachers, parents and even for-a-fee programs for professional communicators.
4. Generate partnerships in the community and create a stronger research agenda.

Gillmor's post elaborates on the culture he believes needs to emerge in education. It's a thoughtful overview.

The search goes on for a new business framework that makes journalism economically feasible in a digital setting. Weighing in on the quest are Forbes CEO Steve Forbes and the management consultancy Accenture.

Forbes believes a number of different models will emerge, but all will need to be sustained through advertising and marketing financial underpinning. Subscription revenue won't be enough, he says.

Meanwhile, Accenture has released its third straight survey of executives on the matter with the same conclusion: The biggest challenge is finding the new model. Its prediction: Hybrids are likely, micropayment models are less so.

Greg Ferenstein has posted on Mashable a list of five services and tools that help mobile journalists "rival a fully functional news team."

They're pretty basic but useful as such:

1. Google Voice for interviewing and record-keeping.
2. Ustream for uploading and downloading video.
3. Reeldirector for video editing on the iPhone.
4. Fast fingers. These aren't software, they're yours.
5. Wordpress as a publishing tool.