Making News at CNN's Diversity Open Day

A fast-paced day in the life of TV news production

One of the great benefits of being a student with Ability Today’s Academy for Disabled Journalists is the various work experience opportunities that come your way. In addition to various Masterclasses with industry professionals, all students have an ‘opportunities’ chat thread, specifically for sharing events or application links we come across. 

One such opportunity that I successfully applied for recently was the CNN Diversity Open Day, which took place at CNN London on 1st December. The day is open to early-career journalists from underrepresented demographics, including those from low socio-economic backgrounds, ethnic minorities and disabled or neurodivergent people. Helmed by CNN reporter Adam Dunnakey and running since 2014, the open day offers attendees a chance to experience the real-life workings of TV news broadcasting, whilst uncovering marginalised voices within mainstream media.

I recently attended a CNN Open Day, aimed at helping people from underrepresented groups break into the news and media sector.

The day’s mission was to produce a 30-minute news programme covering four stories and deliver it under as-live broadcast conditions. We started with a pitching session, which was a great icebreaker but also demonstrated how difficult it can be to select the day’s headlines with so many events worthy of attention. 

I was glad to find that three of our four final selections were stories I’d prepared to pitch: we ran the resumption of fighting between Israel and Palestine, the Cop28 Climate Conference in Dubai, World Aids Day and LGBT rights, with a kicker story about the release of Beyonce’s new film and single. The latter was news to me, but I’m sure Queen B will forgive me.

We produced a 30-minute special diversity show.

In groups of five, we got to work. I contributed to the coverage of World Aids Day, which takes place on 1st December each year. We considered this day of observance in the wake of the Russian Supreme Court’s decision to ban the international LGBT Rights movement as an ‘extremist’ group. HIV and AIDS are inequitable and historically have disproportionately affected gay communities. We all had our assigned roles: producers 1 and 2, anchor, reporter and editor and we started by deciding our key story points. I would gladly repeat the day for a full week to try out each and every role, but on this day I was assigned as anchor.

I tried my hand at being an anchor, with Austen Burns as reporter.

We began seeking sources and although I struck out when calling an AIDS charity for comment, our group’s editor Anna Maria secured an interview with a national expert. The 2023 theme for World Aids Day was ‘Let Communities Lead’, so our reporter Austen, Anna Maria and myself headed out on the street to try our hand at vox pops (voice on the street interviews) to discover the general population’s views on our story topic. Assisted by cameraman Neil and producer Ivana, we convinced a few brave people to stop and chat to us in the cold (it was snowing!). 

We went out to gain the ‘person on the street’ perspective

I was struck by how considered some of our vox pops responses were: people had clearly thought deeply about the issues of the day, with one woman calling for an end to stigma and pointing out how treatable and preventable HIV is now, and another man expressing great sympathy and decrying events in Russia as a ‘red-herring’ to divert attention from underhand political action.

Back in the warmth of the studio, our group’s producers Olivia and Rebecca had put together our script and sent it to CNN helper Eve, for fact-checking and editing. Following a lunch break shared with professionals who gave us insight into their roles and advice for career development, we embraced the pre-deadline afternoon rush. Anna did some swift editing to get her interview footage ready for broadcast while the rest of our team made some last-minute script edits and checked in with other groups to ensure a good overall flow for the show.

The CNN Newsroom with professional (and very expensive) equipment.

The Newsroom was a bit like walking into Santa’s Grotto: bright, exciting, a little overwhelming. All the CNN staff put us so at ease that the enjoyment of presenting the stories we’d spent the day working on, as well as getting to see what the other teams produced, overrode any nerves. Sitting under the light of a news desk with a microphone on your collar and producer’s voice in your ear is something that many people never get to experience. I enjoyed every moment of the day and was very proud of the final result. Thank you to everyone who helped make this day happen.