CNN Special Investigations Unit
Encyclopedia
CNN Special Investigations Unit is an American investigative documentary
program on CNN
weekends.
Expanding upon CNN Presents
, SIU focuses on each episode being an in depth investigative report
about news stories being covered, commonly featuring a number of interviews with experts on the issue and people who have witnessed the story taking place. The reports are commonly long-form, allowing for the network to cover more information and perspectives than would be available during a 5-minute report on another CNN program, such as CNN Newsroom
.
Compared to Presents, the show has taken a slightly larger point of the reporting being done by CNN reporters, the first commercials promoting the program largely showing pictures of anchors and reporters on locations, asking questions to people on the locations. In addition, the look and feel of the show has changed somewhat drastically, adding more emphasis on the graphics used to present the program itself, in addition to the stories being covered. In addition, presentations on SIU are shorter in length than on Presents, which is now used as a special event for larger special reports that take place on a long-term basis.
Since the program's introduction, the network has slowly shifted towards relabeling past Presents presentations into SIU formatted ones, changing the graphics to reflect the new general label given to long-form reporting done by the network.
CNN Special Investigations Unit taps into the network's worldwide resources and deep bench of top-notch journalists, including chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour
, anchors Anderson Cooper
, John Roberts, and Soledad O'Brien
, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta
, correspondents John King
, Candy Crowley
, Abbie Boudreau
, Drew Griffin
and others.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
program on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
weekends.
Expanding upon CNN Presents
CNN Presents
CNN Presents is an American documentary program on CNN weekends. The program used to be replaced with CNN Special Investigations Unit, which features the same documentary format, but differs from it in a number of ways and is shorter in length....
, SIU focuses on each episode being an in depth investigative report
Investigative report
An investigative report is a document that is meant to provide information on a certain topic that is not easily obtained. It is meant to present the reader with a wealth of easily understood information and usually contains an interview or two on the subject...
about news stories being covered, commonly featuring a number of interviews with experts on the issue and people who have witnessed the story taking place. The reports are commonly long-form, allowing for the network to cover more information and perspectives than would be available during a 5-minute report on another CNN program, such as CNN Newsroom
CNN Newsroom
CNN Newsroom is an American news program on CNN/US.Broadcasting throughout the week, Newsroom features live and taped news reports, in addition to analysis from experts on the issues being covered, and headlines throughout each hour. The program tends to focus on softer news than their hard news...
.
Compared to Presents, the show has taken a slightly larger point of the reporting being done by CNN reporters, the first commercials promoting the program largely showing pictures of anchors and reporters on locations, asking questions to people on the locations. In addition, the look and feel of the show has changed somewhat drastically, adding more emphasis on the graphics used to present the program itself, in addition to the stories being covered. In addition, presentations on SIU are shorter in length than on Presents, which is now used as a special event for larger special reports that take place on a long-term basis.
Since the program's introduction, the network has slowly shifted towards relabeling past Presents presentations into SIU formatted ones, changing the graphics to reflect the new general label given to long-form reporting done by the network.
CNN Special Investigations Unit taps into the network's worldwide resources and deep bench of top-notch journalists, including chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...
, anchors Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
, John Roberts, and Soledad O'Brien
Soledad O'Brien
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien is an American Broadcast journalist. She is currently the host of the "In America" documentary unit on CNN, and is best known for anchoring the CNN marquee morning newscast American Morning from July 2003 to April 2007, with Miles O'Brien...
, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta is an American neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia....
, correspondents John King
John King (journalist)
John King is an American journalist and is the anchor of John King, USA which appears weeknights at 7pm/ET on CNN. He is also the former anchor of State of the Union with John King...
, Candy Crowley
Candy Crowley
Candy Alt Crowley is a CNN anchor and Chief Political Correspondent, specializing in U.S. presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate elections. She is based in CNN's Washington bureau, and hosted Inside Politics in place of Judy Woodruff before the show was replaced with The Situation Room. Crowley...
, Abbie Boudreau
Abbie Boudreau
Abbie Boudreau is an ABC correspondent in Los Angeles. She joined on November 10, 2010. She was formerly with CNN. She has received seven regional Emmys for investigative reporting, writing and enterprise journalism.-Early career:...
, Drew Griffin
Drew Griffin
Drew Griffin is a reporter on the American cable news channel CNN.-Career:Griffin worked as an investigative reporter for CBS 2 News in Los Angeles for 10 years. He joined CNN in May 2004. In September 2005, Griffin covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Griffin's reports about the looting by...
and others.