Adam, the Intern's First Weekend in the CNN Newsroom

From Adam Dolgoff, a Senior at University of Florida at Gainesville:

My first weekend interning with the CNN weekend morning show started off with waking up on Friday at 4:00 A.M. for the first time ever. As I arrived on the 5th floor at CNN, I was introduced to many new people including the anchors: Betty Nguyen and TJ Holmes. The topics of the show included the 25th anniversary of Tetris, the America I Am exhibit in the civic center which I assisted with the field production of, Ahmadinejad's victory, and a nasty thunderstorm which ripped through Memphis, Tennessee.

Then, I met the director of the show, the technical director, the fonts and stills operators, line producers, etc., in the master control room. I sat and observed the Executive Producer, Tenisha Abernathy, and learned the router system she uses to communicate with everyone. I also watched her modify the rundown of the show using a computer program called "iNews." After about two hours I went down and observed the Associate Producer, Hannah, use iNews again to help coordinate the show.

Towards the end of the show I moved into the area in front of the newsroom where the camera operator and prompter work and observed them for the rest of the show. On Saturday, I basically did the same thing but the show was primarily on Ahmadinejad claiming his re-election in Iran.

Overall, my first week interning at CNN was very exciting and I really can't believe how much I learned.