Anderson Cooper Research Paper

Anderson Cooper was born in 1967 to writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, of the Cornelius Vanderbilt line. He was raised in New York City and was enrolled in the prestigious Dalton School during his teenage years. Though privileged, his early was marked by tragedy, with his father dying when Cooper was only 10 years old and his only brother committing suicide. These events, however, are what pushed him toward a career in journalism. He would go on to attend Yale University, graduating in 1989 with a degree in political science before pursuing a journalism career (“Anderson Cooper”).
Cooper started his career as a fact checker for Channel One, a program orientated at high school students. Growing restless, he struck out on his own, taking a video camera and traveling to war torn region in Africa and Southeast Asia. His reports gained the attention of ABC and in 1995 he became a war correspondent for the network. Later he would move to anchor positions on CNN before finally hosting his own news program, Anderson Cooper 360°, in 2003 (“Anderson Cooper”).
The show’s popularity rose significantly during Cooper’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina, in which his impassioned reporting style – dubbed “emo-journalism” – was on full display (“Anderson Cooper”).
His reports are personal, as he often gets emotionally involved in the stories he is covering. Indeed, Cooper’s personality always shines through in his reports, displaying a conspicuous empathy that has contributed to his public esteem. A criticism of this style is, of course, the eternal journalistic question of what role a journalist plays in society. Should they just be a source of information, or are they allowed to take a stance? Though his personality-fueled style offers an engaging form of storytelling, when a topic demands a more strict relation of information to the public, a slight bias is inescapably
present.
AC 360° is centered around relatively few stories an episode. This allows for a more in-depth coverage of the news items chosen. The crucial aspect of this style is the importance of the selectivity of the stories covered. The content of his show during the current weeks, for example, have been largely, if not entirely, presidential election based. This format may not work for audiences looking to be quickly informed in a diversity of topics. Cooper does attempt to cover topics within the frivolous, using his popular "Ridiculist," often airing near the end of the program, to present more lighthearted and humorous stories. Cooper’s program is largely panel based, with a format focused around quickly introducing a story then presenting it to the panel for discussion. The panel of guests each represents a different side or area of the issue. Cooper acts to guide the discussion rather than get directly involved in the fight. I appreciate that he allows his guests speak without interrupting them. The downside to this format lies in his number of guests. At times Cooper has too many guests at once, sometimes six or seven, creating an environment where no one gets a chance to talk effectively at all.