The scholarly resource Oxford Analytica has examined the impact of blogs on the media landscape and concluded they will fill important gaps but not kill the traditional business.

That's a simplification of the elaborate, clearly constructed analysis by Oxford of the contribution blogs are making to media. Among other things it says blogs:

- Media are becoming more collaborative, transparent and participatory.
- Blogs are compelling businesses to be more responsive and open.
- Traditional media are trawling blogs for tips and leads on stories they no longer can easily cover.

While the recession and transformation of media are creating seismic shifts of retrenchment and consolidation, Oxford concludes traditional media will find itself back at the heart of the more diverse business. 

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.

On The Media Blog, Chris Elliott suggests there might be a link between the online circulation successes of a newsroom and the number of its journalists who use Twitter.

It is a convenient argument to suggest Twitter is a waste of time, but as Elliott argues, even if it is, "time has never been so well wasted." Moreover he observes a correlation between newsroom audience growth and newsroom Twitter use.

He suggests that using Twitter as an instrument for distribution and solicitation of content is of great value to a brand, and he believes the value of a journalist increases as one enters the social media realm.

From Blogussion comes a primer on the imperative of blogging in the age of changing media.

It ought to be obvious at the end of the decade, but for some it isn't, that blogging offers the largest personal and institutional opportunity to develop and converse with communities of interest.

The post from Everett Bogue explores the basics of creating, publishing and marketing blogs.

"As the future of journalism unfolds, we’re beginning to see just how beneficial this shift is for the writers out there.

1. We can interact directly with our audience.
2. We can write for a small audience, about what we care about.
3. We can profit directly, and immediately, from our writing.
4. We can build a reputation for ourselves, outside of an institution."

Bogue identifies successful marketing techniques, audience development and platform options. It's a useful elementary guide to the field for aspiring and experienced journalists alike interested in the form.

One of the blogosphere's challenges is to organize content for those who want to refer to it. RSS feeds and individual sites are fine, but curation and organization continue to matter.

A second challenge is, of course, the business model and how bloggers can be adequately paid to ensure quality sustains.

Which is why the new AsianCorrespondent.com site offers interesting possibilities. It's a site of about 50 English-language paid bloggers in 13 countries all over the vast Asian continent, augmented by Associated Press content from there. Unlike some such sites that pay according to page views, AsianCorrespondent is compensating with fixed salaries.

At first blush the site has a strong range of harder and softer news, analysis and commentary. It ought to become a good news resource because, unlike the lens of a western-based news agency that filters content for western distribution, this has more of a feet-on-the-ground feel to it.

And it might prove to be a model for others to try similar hubs to serve strong specialties.

The annual report on the blogosphere is being released in a serialized fashion this week by Technorati.

The latest instalment suggests some 13 per cent of bloggers do it full-time.
A further 15 per cent use the blog to supplement incomes.

Who blogs? Relatively affluent and educated people. Two-thirds are men and 40 per cent have graduate degrees.

Why? Self-expression, sharing of expertise. More than two-thirds say their own personal satisfaction is the measurement of success.

Danny Sullivan spreads out his long talk with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and reveals a great deal about the search engine/advertising behemoth's views on the print medium's future.

Among the views:

1. Google has a responsibility to help with production costs, advertising challenges and classified problems.
2. Newspapers will decline but not die.
3. Google wants to create new ways to read online.
4. New advertising formats will emerge.
5. Few bloggers can do what large organizations can and there is some fear that city hall and other civic coverage will be at risk.
6. Brands will still prevail over branded journalists.

The least attractive element of the Internet's culture of conversation has been the all-too-frequent disregard for basic accountability in the commentary attached to stories, topics, images and discussions.

For some reason, anonymity is acceptable --- not as the justifiable shield for those who fear retribution if identified, but as a shield for those with other kinds of fears, motives or tendencies. Somewhere early in the game it became a rule instead of an exception to adopt a nickname and speak through it.

The result breaks what we were all taught rightly in school: That part of the bargain in speaking freely is the responsibility to stand up and be counted, and that part of the bargain in being criticized is to at least know who is attacking.

It's heartening, then, to read J.R. Johnson, the CEO of the social sharing service Lunch.com, observe in the San Jose Mercury News a shift to more accountability in comments online. He believes, and I agree, that more transparency among contributors and commenters will spur more participation; at the moment, many are keeping out of the fray because the unattributed cohort is given a long leash.

Ultimately the benefit will outweigh the detriment in making visible all but a handful --- those who truly need the protection.

The New York Times' recent examination of the Harvard Medical School was an extensively researched investigation involving a big media outlet asking big questions and producing a big conclusion on inherent conflicts.

Eric Alterman suggests the story is a good example of why it's important to try to preserve journalism's existing format. The Harvard school is large, a recipient of government grants, and not subject to Freedom of Information law.

"Do you think it will cooperate with some blogger?"

The MBA Blogs from Business Week are a frequent source of good media observation. A new post argues that the way for companies to get media is to be media.

By that, it means creating a blog and hiring writers instead of creating a marketing budget and hiring an agency. It means breaking news instead of making it. It means writing about your targeted media list instead of waiting for them to target you.

To many newsrooms, the advice here might feel menacing.