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From print journalism, to broadcasting, to blogging, to even texting and Twitter, journalism has changed a great deal throughout time.

Bob Papa, the radio voice of the New York Giants; Bonnie Bernstein, a reporter and a studio host for ESPN; and John Giannone, the host of the New York Rangers telecasts spoke about how to stay competitive in broadcasting, their careers, the state of sports journalism, and many other current sports issues at Temple Sha'arey Shalom, Springfield May 17.

"We all grew up as having newspapers as part of our daily ritual," Giannone said. "I still think of myself as a writer and that's really where my background was. There's always a belief that TV people do half the work for twice the money."

From 1988 to 1997, Giannone wrote for the New York Post and the New York Daily News, which really helped jumpstart his career as a writer, he said. Today, online writing has taken the jobs of many print journalists and changed the way journalism is produced.

"They miss the daily vibe, of being able to sit down, craft a story on deadline, and see it tangibly in their hands the next day," he said.

After graduating from Fordham University, Papa worked for WNEW, where they had just started a sports talk radio show. They had beat writers such as Peter Vescsey that made weekly appearances.

"Radio gave print people a platform to be more known," Papa said.

"They were very territorial then, and they're even more territorial now because they know how much of a dying breed their line of work is," Giannone said.

Bernstein, who is originally from Howell, grew up wanting to write for Sports Illustrated. She would attend New York Mets games often with her dad and one time she wandered off and wound up right near the players and the diamond club, where she saw players being interviewed. Instantly, she knew that was what she wanted to do. However, being a female in a field filled with men wasn't the easiest task, she said.

"I found that when you are moving your way up the ranks, people don't necessarily look at you legitimately until you make it to the networks," Bernstein said. "Once you get there, people can't try to knock you off the mountain fast enough. That is when you sort of start sensing that people may not want you to be there."

Along the way she faced many challenges that included sexual harassment, she said. But, the one thing that has always helped her get the upper hand on other reporters is the fact that she is constantly preparing, researching, and talking to players and coaches, she said.

Papa who has had the privilege to do both television and radio said he loves doing both, but they are very different. The transition from radio to television is actually quite easy as long as one understands the differences in how to broadcast, he said. Papa said he has been so successful in broadcasting in both venues because he is a "tape junkie" who studies every play.

"When you do radio, you're in control," Papa said. "As a play-by-play announcer on radio your job is to describe everything and you are sort of in charge."

However, television is the exact opposite in that the viewers can see everything that is going on, so they want to hear the analyst. In broadcasting on television the play-by-play man has to be able set the analyst up and at the same time know when to shut up, he said.

"The one thing I do like a lot better about television is they put you in a lot better press booths," Papa said.

One new aspect to the media that has had a negative affect on journalism is blogging. Due to the fact that anyone can write a blog, there is no way to monitor who is blogging and what they are saying, Bernstein said.

"So, anybody can write a blog about anything, whether the information is factually correct or the information is completely made up," she said. "That's why I still embrace newspapers the way I do, these are people who make their livelihood covering their team."

Recently the National Football League was affected by blogging, Papa said. Prior to the NFL draft in April it was reported on a blog that three or four of the top players in the draft were said to have used performance enhancing drugs while in college. However, it was later proven that this was not true, further proving the point that blogging is dangerous, he said.

"I think the biggest damage that is being done to is the fans because how do you know what's legitimate or not," Papa said.

Each of the three shared their careers' defining moments. For Giannone, it was when he covered the death of Dale Earnhardt. He witnessed grown men crying and it was a sight that he could never forget.

For Bernstein, her greatest moment was being able to cover the Giants-Ravens Super Bowl, she said. She has been a diehard Giants fan her entire life, so this was a dream come true.

Papa's most memorable experience was covering the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. At that time, the war in Bosnia was going on and the war stopped for a brief 20 minutes so the six athletes competing could get on a plane to Barcelona.

"When these six tattered athletes walked into the stadium in Barcelona, there was a feeling I've never experienced in my life; it was like greater than any sporting event," he said.