The Patriot Press takes a bite of the big apple

 Our knuckles turned white as we gripped the armrests and hoped our plane would land safely soon. The aircraft was going up, down and side-to-side in the nearly 75 mph winds, and our stomachs felt as if we were on a rollercoaster.

Simply said, it was terrifying, especially for the first time flyers that vouched to "never fly again".

At the time, our flight into New York City seemed like an awful experience, and it was. However, after making it to our destination, and spending three days and four nights, the "scare" now seems like a small price to pay for the educational and cultural experiences we gained.

Staying at The Marriott Marquis in Times Square in the heart of NYC, nine Patriot Press editors and our advisor attended the 2010 College Media Advisors Spring National Convention in hopes of learning more about journalism.

Hosted by the College Media Advisors Inc. (CMA), the organization "has been working since 1954 to help student media professionals improve their media operations. 

Attended by approximately 1,000 student journalists and 100 advisors, this yearly convention lasted three days, March 13-16. It was set up with over 13 sessions to choose from every hour from 8 a.m. to approximately 6 p.m.

The sessions were targeted for students involved in college newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, television and radio stations.

Our advisor, Rob Marino, taught two sessions like he has in the past to show students and advisors around the country how the Patriot Press operates. 

In addition to hourly sessions, a daily keynote speaker shared his thoughts and experiences about the industry.

All the speakers emphasized the change journalism is taking from print to online.

They stressed the importance of becoming familiar with blogging and other social media forms.

"It's a lot of investment to get an end result," said Brian Stelter, 24, media reporter for The New York Times who writes about television and digital media and is a lead contributor to The Times' Media Decoder blog. "But it's totally worth it."

Stelter explained how as a college student he blogged daily, receiving no pay for months upon months to establish his credibility.

He and the other speakers, Terry Moran from ABC News and Mark Halperin from Time magazine encouraged aspiring journalists to become active in the world of social media.

Although the Patriot Press contributes to the digital age with its own Web site, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace accounts, the conference has taught us there is certainly more we can do to engage with people using social media.

While we scoff at Twitter, and get annoyed when our advisor suggests we do it, perhaps we are wrong and are "behind the 21^st century".

Professionals shared instances where using Twitter proved extremely beneficial.

In one case, one intern was hired out of five candidates because he was an active and frequent user of Twitter.

All in all, we have learned that while some things we are advised to do seem silly or a waste of time, in all actuality it could benefit us in the long run.