CNN brought its successful journalism training program, CNN Academy, to the United States for the first time in October 2024, with seven U.S. colleges taking part in a special 5-day bootcamp in Atlanta.
Students from the University of Alabama, Clark Atlanta University, University of Florida, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, Howard University, and Spelman College convened at CNN’s Techwood campus from October 12th to 16th to learn from CNN anchors, correspondents, editors, producers, and executives.
Students attending the Atlanta bootcamp covered topics including the art of storytelling, mobile journalism, ethics, artificial intelligence and writing for digital platforms. The students were also able to tour the Techwood campus and visit studios used by our sister network TNT Sports.
Once their training was complete, they headed out into the field to gather content for their own stories and presented them at the end of the 5-day course. The students were given feedback from CNN journalists and CNN Academy trainers.
Statistics
I loved the group work and getting to meet people from other colleges.
I truly enjoyed learning about mobile journalism! It has opened my eyes to all the possibilities of journalism.
What I enjoyed most about the CNN bootcamp is the advice on how to get in the door as an aspiring journalist. I liked hearing the pros and cons because that really put in perspective how much I want to do this career.
I enjoyed the immersion and team building. I work in media and the projects certainly mimicked the speed and sometimes chaos of the room on deadline. As an older student, I appreciated how people from different backgrounds were forced to produce something together
I enjoyed the entire process of learning how to do something and then putting it into practice. I think it was a much better experience doing it this way rather than learning the material and being sent back to our respective universities with the new knowledge.
I loved the ability to see the studios and learn more of the behind-the-scenes aspects of CNN Atlanta. It was also great to hear from CNN executives and staff to learn about their real experiences, so we could know more internal aspects of what it would look like to be in the journalism field.
Following the bootcamp, 24 students from Georgia Tech, University of Florida, Georgia State and Howard University were among 140 of their peers from around the world who gathered in the UAE to take part in a special CNN Academy Newsroom Simulation in Abu Dhabi.
Across seven days participants, they attended talks and workshops and crucially learned from top CNN journalists about what it takes to effectively engage audiences.
The participants were given the chance to put theory into practice, taking part in an intensive, competitive challenge. Working in groups with participants from around the world, they were set the challenge of investigating and reporting on a breaking news story in a fictional country; attending mock news conferences and interviews with role players.
