CNN International senior VP Rena Golden unravels the rules behind world class news coverage
Imagine a state where you can be kidnapped in a matter of minutes. It’s a very commonplace occurrence, and you don’t need to be exceptionally loaded to enjoy the privilege. When the senior vice president of CNN International tells you she comes from the region, you wonder at the relationship of your background with your career graph. In Rena Golden’s case it’s both an issue of mattering a lot and mattering zilch.
Her parents left Bihar for North Carolina when she was just six. Needless to say, the memories are few if any. However, brought up as an Indian in America filled her outlook with what she calls ‘natural scepticism’. “I grew up with one foot in both worlds. It helped shape who I am, automatically giving me an outsider’s perspective on both worlds,” she explains.
Golden, as her resume will reel off, has been instrumental in setting up CNN International as a global news force. She has been an executive producer for a number of live events and breaking news including the war in Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, the beginning of air-strikes in the war in Afghanistan, and Great Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
“Journalism is in my blood,” she says. “My grandfather was one,” she adds. “I’ve always loved to read newspapers and was especially interested in global affairs.” Much to the annoyance of her father who wanted his children to follow in his medical footsteps. “But, it wasn’t such a big deal when I turned to writing instead,” she laughs.
Rena’s children (a son, 15 and a daughter, 12) will boast a mum who tackled the 100-hour Millennium 2000 programming with six correspondents across the world ready to go live, while the Indian Airlines hijacking in Afghanistan heated up and the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned.
Chaos still reigns supreme – 2 am phone calls for story consultations are still very much a part of her life. News coverage, however, has taken on a different feel. “The audience is no longer passive, they’re constantly digesting information, they want to be engaged in the news they’re receiving. I want to look at other platforms – mobile forms, world class news websites. Even user generated content – people are no longer happy just being spoken to,” she says.
If any of this seems too grandiose a plan, it’s because you’re not Rena and you’re not the harshest critic on yourself like she is. “I’ve been so tough on myself,” she says. However, 25 years in the business have brought on new challenges. “I just can’t remember the names of new people I meet,” she says with some dismay. “I used to be so good at that.”
s_rituparna@dnaindia.net
