News Broadcasting
CNN pulls out all stops in Iraq attack coverage
MUMBAI: CNN International has doubled its staff in West Asia including Iraq (northern Iraq and Baghdad), Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Israel to provide a live coverage of the ongoing US invasion of Iraq.
The news schedule would be presented from CNN’s main production centres in Atlanta, London and Hong Kong together with round-the-clock anchoring from the CNN broadcasting facility in Kuwait, a company statement has said.
CNN currently has over 150 staff deployed across the middle east. Some CNN correspondents reporting from the middle east include Nic Robertson and Rym Brahimi in Baghdad, plus Christiane Amanpour, Jim Clancy and John Vause, Sanjay Gupta, Brent Sadler, Jane Arraf, Ben Wedeman and Alessio Vinci.
As the Iraqi conflict escalates, CNN’s Kuwait studios will link to studio programming from Hong Kong, London and Atlanta, as the network broadcasts a live rolling news schedule.
As events unfold special editions of programmes will be introduced to the schedule to allow for greater discussion of events. These will include Q&A, CNN’s daily interactive programme where CNN anchors question experts on the day’s key issues; Insight, a half hour in-depth analysis of the issues behind the news, and International Correspondents, a forum for the world’s journalists to discuss the events affecting the news agenda.
While CNN has refused to quantify the amount that would be spent to cover the war, the talk doing the rounds is that it has pumped $35 million into bringing the war coverage live.
The words that CNN president Chris Cramer used in his speech on 15 March at the FRAMES 2003 in Mumbai come to mind here. “Broadcast journalism around the world is at cross-roads but the integrity of the profession has never been in more danger than we find it!”
Highlighting that healthy scepticism is the need of the hour, Cramer stated: “Diverse opinion – unpopular opinion, sometimes-unpalatable opinion. I have told CNN staff to dig deeper into this series of events as is intellectually and practically possible. If we drilled to a thousand feet into issues in the past I want now to drill to 10,000 feet. And deeper. To be sceptical at all times-of politicians, or lobby groups or military minds.”
“CNN is not a mouthpiece for any government – The US government, the British government or any other government for that matter. Healthy scepticism will be necessary for all our journalists, especially those reporters-thought to be over 500-who will be working with us and British military units,” Cramer added.
Cramer recalled an article written by Harold Evans, former editor of Britain’s Sunday Times, recently in which he says that “without the cooperation of the armed services, the press cannot hope to cover a war. The trade-off is a measure of access for a measure of official control.” Cramer wondered as to how much control will there be.
Just how much control should be clearer from the type of media coverage that will be dished out as this conflict heads towards its logical conclusion.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
