WebNewser attended last night’s mediabistro.com panel on social media and journalism. It was an informational and, at times, heated discussion about where journalism is headed. What does the rise of citizen journalism mean to journalism as a profession? With most content free, how can real journalism thrive…or even survive?

Most in the crowd agreed that NYU Professor and PressThink creator Jay Rosen had the quote of the night: “There’s no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.” In other words, while there are thousands of places to get information, whether news sites, blogs or following people on Twitter, we all need to set our own filters so the digital age doesn’t overwhelm your life.

We Twittered the discussion at Tribeca Cinemas last night, with the most recent tweets up top.

@jayrosen_nyu: It is enough of a crisis that you have to think of all possibilities. Major newspapers in major cities could crumble.

@jayrosen_nyu: We need to come up with a biz model. On NYT going free: sideways traffic thru search was so big that free was the answer.

Tense question from the crowd: the business model is broken! With everything being free how can you still have vibrant, smart journalism?

@jayrosen_nyu: There’s no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure.

NPR’s @acarvin on outrage over canceling of Bryant Park Project: “people created Facebook groups and ning groups to save the show.

@jayrosen_nyu on monitization: we’re not there yet. “We need a lot of different tries, people don’t know” how this kind of journalism makes $$

@shirleybrady BW has blogger guidelines and is putting together social media guidelines. “It’s a new world and we’re still navigating it.”

@rachelsklar talks about Abrams Research “kerfuffle”: journalists paid to help clients with PR crises. “In this economy” it makes sense.

@jayrosen_nyu A good day of Twittering (10-20) come from teaching sessions then stringing them together.

In the room: one person uses Ning, about half Twitter, many on Facebook, most on LinkedIn.

“Everyone can be a journalist, not everyone should be a journalist” – @rachelsklar

@rachelsklar: What’s interesting about everyone having the means to production is that you don’t need the training to be a journalist.

@jayrosen_nyu: We have to figure out how the basics of journalism exist with new newsgathering tools. http://twitpic.com/18gvs

What social networking means to journos. Says @shirleybrady: “No matter what your speciality is, you’re shoved out in front if your readers.”

33 Businessweek journos are on Twitter; 90 staffers contribute to BW blogs.

@shirleybrady: It’s part of everyone’s job at BW to take part in reader engagement.

@acarvin talks about how NPR used Twitter during the primaries. Created iPhone app, twitter feed for voter irregularities.

Good crowd. 80+. On the panel, NPRs Andy Carvin PressThink’s Jay Rosen and Rachel Sklar.