InternViews: Sanjana Gopu

InternViews is a series where we ask Grady College students to describe their internship experience.

Sanjana Gopu is a fourth-year journalism and sociology major with a minor in law, jurisprudence and the state. This year, she’s spending her summer as an editorial operations intern at CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. Read more about her internship experience below.

Provide a brief overview of your role and its associated responsibilities.

I am an Editorial Operations intern—this means I work on broadcast programs and contribute to editorial processes such as choosing media, stacking stories and assisting show teams with technical responsibilities on the show. This includes coding graphics, deciding what visuals are important to a story, broadcast editing and even pitching stories. I work on two shows: CNN News Central AM and CNN This Morning Weekend.

What opportunities have you had during your internship?

I’ve been able to assist associate producers and writers.. I get a lot of hands-on experience with coding, pitching and writing stories—it’s really amazing to see my work/stacks on TV! During broadcast, I join the show team in the control room to see it all come together. I also have opportunities to develop stories and pitch them to show teams, and publish through CNN Digital!

What is one piece of work you are proud of creating in this role?

Definitely writing and getting stories on air from scratch. Being able to relay what I think are newsworthy stories to producers and create the entire vision, and seeing it on TV is so rewarding and surreal!

Did you receive any mentorship or guidance? How did it impact your experience?

There are many different roles and responsibilities in producing a broadcast show. Everyone on the broadcast teams want to see an intern learn and grow from the experience—so mentorship and guidance is crucial in how they assign responsibilities and ensure my time with CNN is transformative and fruitful. Their mentorship specifically makes room for many questions. I am able to ask many questions and get a “real world” feel for what it’s like to work in broadcast—not only through watching others do work. Even outside of work at CNN, my many mentors have been very happy to read my work and help me in areas that aren’t related to broadcast, such as visual and written journalism.

How has the Grady curriculum prepared you for this internship?

Learning what makes good storytelling: how to order impactful information and recognizing what would best support a story, has been incredibly helpful in my internship. A question I find myself asking everyday is, if I was a viewer, what other information would I need? What visuals could help me better understand and synthesize the story? This habit was formed through the mentorship at Grady and the curriculum that has engrained habits in me, ones that strengthen my storytelling skills.

What challenges have you overcome in this role?

One thing I underestimated about broadcast journalism is the fastpacedness. Of course, journalism as a profession requires a very quick turnaround (thankfully I learned these things from every one of my Grady classes); but jumping in the deep end of broadcast specifically was a challenge since I am still learning the nuanced challenges and requirements of broadcast journalism. Because of the great mentorship and openness to questions from my mentors, I was able to adapt quickly and become independent in my responsibilities—developing my own stories just days into my internship! On a more technical note, learning any new software always has a learning curve, but I was able to attend many classes through CNN to train me on the softwares.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you gained from your experience?

Take. Initiative. Not only does this put a good impression on the people you work with, but it fosters good work ethic and forces one to learn from their mistakes and get comfortable asking questions and looking for opportunities. When I first started, I was very nervous to even touch the stories that needed to be developed because of my own self-doubt—”It’s CNN. I don’t want to mess up.” I started doing it anyways (with permission) and I was able to learn from my mistakes instead while getting comfortable to take on more responsibility! 

How has this internship influenced your future career?

I’ve learned a lot about what goes into all types of journalism while being here. Working with people who are so passionate about what they do and being good journalists really inspires me to continue my path in journalism and “remember my why.” I’ve grown a lot of admiration and respect for the people around me as they are committed to not only to telling impactful stories but seeing those around them grow. I’m able to see how important it is to me to carry on these lessons and how important it is to me to love what I do.

Editor: Sarah Kate Maher, skm01341@uga.edu