The New York Connection trip is in two days! To help students prepare, and to shine a light on this year’s participating employers, the Career Development Center has put together a look at the final two employers on our trip: CNN and the United Talent Agency.
While the two employers seem distant on paper, CNN and UTA share one very common theme in their respective industries of news and talent management: They both work with on-air media talent.
CNN:
The Cable News Network (CNN) was founded in 1980 as a 24-hour cable news channel. It’s known as the first station to offer that kind of consistent coverage. It’s also the first all-news television channel in the United States.
Home to journalists like Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Don Lemon, and Erin Burnett, CNN prides itself in providing outstanding coverage from compelling on-air journalists. In fact, the company has defined much of its current brand around the talent it brings to the table.
Emerson students have worked with CNN in a variety of ways. Our students have primarily worked behind the scenes in various internship roles, including, but not limited to, on-air production, news package research, and digital production for the network’s web presence.
United Talent Agency:
UTA is a talent agency representing major talent for Film, Television, and Music entertainment. Just some of their clients include Don Cheadle, Gwenyth Paltrow, and, on the music side, Muse and Paramore.
The company practically set the mold for what defines modern talent agencies: They’re driven by ambitious and smart agents who are supported by outstanding assistants.
And that’s where many of the agency’s opportunities open up. It’s industry standard to see most young entertainment professionals start as an assistant of some sort, usually working with an agent directly or starting in the agency’s mailroom.
What you’ll hear from UTA will primarily align with this kind of trajectory, though you’ll also meet a few current agents and hear their view on the best ways to get into the industry.
So what?:
The so what of all of this is that these two employers offer entry-level or starting positions that will have you working behind the scenes of a televised or publically shown product. Working with either company means that your work is contributing to a live portfolio, whether its the success of a particular talent or the quality of a finished news package.
