BUnow student editors traveled to NYC from March 18-20 to present at the Annual College Media Association conference. The conference was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. Over 1,200 student journalists and their advisors gathered at the hotel to host various sessions ranging from getting that A-list interview, thinking like an editor, first amendment rights and even sessions on how to deal with troublesome colleagues. BUnow presented a session titled, “Grow Your Online News Site With Ads, Editing, Video, and Social Media.” The group presented for an hour about its growth and how student editors have done it. Attributing to video, ads, social media and editing, BUnow demonstrated how to make it possible. BUnow presenters included CJ Shultz-Editor-In-Chief, Justin McDonald-Managing Editor, Paul Rosa-Ads Manager, Sean Roth-Video Editor, Klarese Donnelly-Event Manager, Christine McDowell-Social Media Manager, Jennifer Rinaldi-PR director, and Lindsay George- Opinion and Editorial Editor.
BUnow’s faculty advisors, Richard Ganahl and Sharon Santus also presented at the conference. Ganahl gave a presentation titled, “What To Do When The School Pulls The Plug: Or, Make Friends With The First Amendment.” Santus presented, “The A-List: Landing Interviews With Presidents, Rock Stars and Hollywood Elite.” Both extended their expertise and experiences on the subject matter to young journalists and advisors.
This four day event gathers students from around the country to come together to showcase what they have done as well as lend expert advise. There was a total of 275 sessions packed into four days. Critiques of your newspapers were held as well as tables scattered with various newspapers from all the attendees.
Various News giants attended the conference to offer advice and present such as Time Magazine, CNN, The New York Times, ESPN, and NBC News.
The Voice, Bloomsburg’s campus newspaper also attended the CMA conference. The Voice presented a session titled, “Connecting In Real Time and Real Space.” Faculty Advisor, Mary Bernath along with Editor-In-Chief, Vanessa Pellechio and Managing Editor, Joe Fisher discussed how technology sometimes gets in the way of good journalism. Sometimes it is necessary to make the effort to communicate and talk face-to-face rather than tweet, text or Facebook.
This conference allows student editors to gain the knowledge and experience to bring back to their respective universities to utilize these strategies on their own publications. BUnow would like to extend a thank you to the University for this incredible learning opportunity.
