I get the feeling it’s been a good year for conferences about the pitiful state of the media.

Arnold Amber, who represents the Communications Workers of America, broke the ice this morning with a deadpan reflection about a similar conference he was at last weekend, and the one before that.

“It is so depressing to hear at these conferences about the challenges the media is facing,” he said.

Depressing it is. From the dysfunctional nature of the CRTC to the negative transformation of the political dialogue in the media, here’s what we heard this morning: if it used to be bad, today it’s worse.

But let me tell you what’s worse than attending conferences to hear about the state of the media: being a journalism student with a significant student loan, and attending conferences about the state of the media.

Nary a ray of sunshine penetrated the subterranean lecture hall at York University. And I’ll admit, though there were interesting tidbits here and there, my rebel heart went lonely. (I'll also admit that had I not had a free pass, I could not have afforded the conference fees.)

Even though the theme of the weekend was crisis and opportunity, none of this morning’s panelists were disenfranchised enough to contextualize the crisis of the media within a broader frame of the crisis of capitalism.

That said, there was a recognition that the business model of media, and especially  of local journalism, isn’t just a bad one. It’s that there isn’t one.

“The elephant in the room at this time is the fact that there is not a business model for the media,” said Alice Klein, publisher of Toronto’s Now Magazine. She argued that big or small, there simply isn’t an existing formula for making media that works for people.

John Harris, from the National Community Radio Association, concurs. “We’ve fallen of a cliff in terms of content for local people,” he said.  “There is no commercial model for local media for many communities in Canada.”

According to Harris, there is growth in community radio, especially in rural areas. But there isn’t a sustainable model over the long term, says Harris, and the media future of mid-sized cities like Hamilton is even less clear.

Again, and this is a theme that came up last night, the corporate media is doing an awful job of covering their own decline. According to Amber, the media “lies continually” about financial information related to the media industry.

Amber finished off his talk with a quote that resonated, calling conference organizers on their bluff. “Don’t tell me about the opportunities… this is a struggle,” he said.