If you tuned into the Republican or Democratic National Conventions this year, you probably caught the stirring speeches, the roar of the crowds, and the interviews with politicians and celebrities alike.
What you didn’t see was the army of dedicated media professionals who helped to bring the shows to your television screen. Behind the scenes, producers, journalists, and interns were working hard to deliver political commentary to their viewers – including interns like UWM undergraduate student Liliana Fannin, who signed on with CNN over the summer to assist the network’s convention coverage.
“It was a super-cool experience,” Fannin said. “CNN – so cool. Big company, national news source.”
Convention runner
The RNC was held at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum in July, and the DNC followed in August at Chicago’s United Center. The conventions are an important part of the election cycle, as delegates gather to formally nominate each party’s candidate for the presidential race.
With such a big event happening in her backyard, Fannin knew she wanted to be part of the action.
“Just being at a convention like that only happens every election season. I just so happen to be in college during this time that they’re coming to the place that I live. It’s a no-brainer for me. I’ve got to do it,” she said.
So Fannin, who grew up in Racine County and chose UWM for its strong journalism program, volunteered immediately when CNN approached UWM journalism faculty looking for interns to assist at the RNC and DNC. She ended up on CNN’s event bookings team, the group that ensures that the network’s guests are in the right place at the right time. Fannin was responsible for escorting interviewees to hair and makeup chairs, getting them to their interview location, and guiding them around the confusing warren of the event spaces. CNN’s anchors and panelists also relied on Fannin to show them around the Fiserv Forum and United Center before they learned the layout themselves.
It was sometimes difficult – Fannin considers herself “directionally challenged” – and each day was exhausting. She worked 10–12-hour shifts, walked miles around each venue, and sincerely regretted her choice to wear Doc Marten shoes on the first day of the RNC after the subsequent blisters.
But the good far outweighed the negatives. Fannin found herself escorting governors, senators, representatives, and delegates to the interview chair. She rubbed elbows with celebrities like Rosario Dawson and ambassadors like Susan Rice. But as an aspiring journalist, the most exciting person that Fannin met was CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“That was awesome. He talked to all of the runners and interns and gave us a little inspirational speech. I was a little star struck,” Fannin said.
A learning experience
Another positive to her internship was that Fannin was able to peek behind the journalism curtain to see the industry in action.
“I would sneak up by the writers and watch them do their thing, reporting and typing live from watching the speeches,” Fannin said. “And there are public relations jobs. It was an eye-opener of just so many different facets and ways that you could get into communication jobs in general.”
Now she has her foot in the door; Fannin forged connections with her CNN supervisors, who encouraged her to stay in touch through the rest of her school year. She thinks she might like a career as a news writer, though she’s not opposed to a PR job either.
The other thing she learned, Fannin said, was how to check her own biases.
“My goal was always to be as professional as possible and show everyone an equal amount of respect and excitement to be there, regardless of which party I was more excited to potentially view. Either way, I met amazing people at both (conventions),” Fannin said. “I think that opened my eyes too, to just so many different types of people have different political views. You might think one thing about someone or a stereotype of how someone would believe, but it might not necessarily be true.”
In turn, she hopes that people won’t stereotype the news media. Fannin knows that there is a lot of distrust surrounding journalism these days, and that some people believe that particular news outlets are biased. Even so, she didn’t see any evidence of it among the people she worked with.
“No one really talked about politics, which I think shows professionalism,” Fannin said. “No one was commenting about the speeches going on, except for the people that were on air, obviously. They were there to do their job, and that’s what they did.”
This month will tie things all together as Fannin and the rest of the nation await results from the presidential election. Regardless of the winner, Fannin is grateful she had the chance to witness the start of their journey at the conventions.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science