There was a lot of talk about the future last week in Denver, at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.  And unlike a lot of what we’ve heard about media lately, not all of it was full of worry.  More than 1400 professors and scholars in print and broadcast journalism, advertising, public relations and mass communication studies gathered there to present research, share teaching strategies and discuss current events. Big yawn, right?

Well, no, not if you’re interested in the future of media. And there is a lot of interest in a series of industries in real turmoil these days. There were questions about the survival of so-called traditional media well before the recession began two years ago. Media organizations appear to be doing a little better during this slow recovery, but questions remain.  How does journalism survive in an environment where an abundance of information is available but there are not enough people willing to pay for it? If journalists disappear, does it  become open season for political corruption? Will there even BE newspapers ten years from now?

And beyond uncertainty, there are questions about credibility. Trust in journalism is at an historic low— the result of years of self- inflicted wounds. Opinion networks blur the lines between fact-finding and fact-free advocacy. Each year the relationship between media organization and audience fractures a little more.

There was plenty of recognition of the problems that led the professions of mass communication into the trouble they find themselves. But there is some guarded optimism as well.  It’s still tough for our graduates to get jobs out there, but media outlets need people who will lead them into the online future, and that gives those students who are learning how to deliver content to the Web an advantage. And it was clear in Denver that the academy by and large has gotten the message that the future of media will bend ever more in the direction of the Internet.  That’s trouble for those hopelessly stuck in the newspaper-radio-television world order that has dominated the media landscape in the past, but for those willing to embrace the future, it’s opportunity.

A considerable amount of scholarship and discussion in this year’s convention centered on where online and especially social media were taking us all. Among the scores of research papers presented: an analysis of the use of Facebook and Twitter in earthquake relief in Haiti, an exploration of students’ use of Twitter to “crowdsource” in story development, an examination of how advertisers are using Facebook to engage audiences, and a look at how journalism instructors are getting students to use Twitter to sharpen the focus of their stories.  Likewise, in panel discussions, there was plenty of interest in seeing how media organizations are using social media to build audiences and brand loyalty, and in what the results of those efforts have been.

Journalism and mass communication researchers and educators have seldom enjoyed the kind of esteem among their professional counterparts that the academics of other disciplines get.  As one professor noted last week, professional engineers look up to their counterparts in the academy.  Lawyers often hold their academic counterparts in high esteem.  Professionals in journalism and mass communications often look down upon those who teach and research in the field.

But these are different days. Many people in the professions readily admit that they do not know where this online/”new media”/social media train is going. There are, however, a lot of folks in colleges and universities now trying to find out.  And some of the answers they’re likely to come up with could change the relationship between the profession and the academy.  Or at least it should.  With so much uncertainty about the future out there, each needs the other now more than ever.