“The only thing we [journalists] have going for us is credibility, if we lose that — if get things wrong, doesn’t matter why or how we got them wrong, just that we screwed up — then we’re out of business.” -CNN Digital News Director, Monte Platt
ATLANTA – Students (including myself) of Prof. Etheridge’s Advanced Media Writing class were treated to a VIP Studio Tour of CNN’s studio news headquarters in Atlanta on Sept. 22nd. Led by the Digital News Editor of CNN, Monte Platt, we were able to get a behind the scenes look at the day-to-day operations at CNN. Luckily for us, it was a busy news day so we got to see what it’s like when breaking news is happening!
The day of the tour Mexico had just experienced a very large earthquake, in addition a hurricane storm front was also approaching the Eastern seaboard of the U.S.
Due to our large group size, Platt split our tour group up into two groups. I went with the second group and we were promptly shown around the studio, including the live studio areas. At the Atlanta CNN location the only studio which is truly live (and on location) is the HLN News/Weather Studio. During our tour no one was actually on air, but editors, writers, directors and several other staff members were hard at work preparing news stories, packages, and making sure everything was ideal for the news anchors.
At one point we entered into the Control Room, this looks exactly like it does in the movies, or when CNN will sometimes show video of their own control rooms during broadcast. One is a big open room with 30-50+ people, all sitting at computers. Many of them actually had two computers or two screens they were working on at the same time, some had standing desks, some were on the phones and others were writing or Googling like their life depended on it. Exciting, journalists never sleep!
The more traditional control room had a handful (about 10-15) directors with a wall of TV monitors and a few computer screens. On the wall, every major news network and all the local channels in Atlanta were being shown (FOX, CBS, ABC, Univision, etc.). Under the major wall of channels they had control knobs and gadgets (it looked like for the teleprompters) for the NY live broadcast. The computer screens, whose contents were in plain view, showed things like: NEXT UP, UPCOMING PACKAGE: FRED – If you look off to the side of your screen, you’ll notice our coverage of….
Just as briefly as we had entered into the studio, we were then preparing to exit. The tour probably lasted about 15-20 minutes, albeit short (explained as due to the busy news day) we got a real live look into what it would be like to work at CNN. It certainly looks like the type of news organization that every working journalist would strive to work for at some point in their career.