In this paper I describe and discuss two useful research projects that show the current shift in the debate on journalism studies from the future of the press to the press of the future. This shift is handled by two different operationalizing strategies: the bonding and bridging strategies that aim to build a link between the analogue and the digital. I illustrate my position in favour of the bridging technologies by presenting an ex novo study on QR (Quick Response) codes, the results of which have interesting implications for the press of the future. This study makes use of two different methodologies: a survey which collected 845 filled questionnaires from a convenient sample of online users, and a collection of around 20 essays written by the master’s students on my course on Theories and Techniques of New Media and Technology of Information at the University of Udine. These two methods – the former quantitative and the latter qualitative – show that knowledge about the QR codes is increasing, but their use still represents little more than a third of the respondents of this sample. QR codes, or an analogous technology, may be one of the solutions for combining print with digital so as to contribute to the mobilization of information, things and people.
