Reportage is an informational journalistic genre. It reports quickly, with the necessary details, and in a vivid form about an event. Its eyewitness or participant is the author himself.
Our task is to give the person information. But unlike , here we can already give some assessment of the event.
The main criterion for reporting as a journalistic genre is the timeliness of information. That is, when the event happened, the reportage comes out. This is the typical form for news and information programs.
Of course, there has to be a newsbreak. That is, the event that happened and formed the basis of the genre.
This does not mean that you can write reports only from some scenes of accidents or disasters. It could also be some pleasant event in life. For example, a city festival, exhibition. That is, something has to happen. And not necessarily a bad thing.
In addition, the reporter himself, must be either an eyewitness (observe from the side ), or a participant in the event. Accordingly, the reader will see the event through the eyes of the author.
The criterion for the quality of a reportage is when the reader says that after reading it, he saw everything with his own eyes. And created the feeling that he himself has been there.
Title
Lead (introduction )
Main core (details, dialogue, action, characters, and narrative )
Analysis or conclusion (if it is an analytical report )
Author’s signature (if you do not wish to remain anonymous )
You may not always include publicly known information in the list. To grab the reader’s attention you can start the lead with an interesting quote.
Here are the basic genre attributes of reporting:
Narrative from an eyewitness.
Time flows from the beginning to the end of the event
Action
Vivid details
Photos from the scene
Sign of zigzagging
Everything is in the person of the participant of the events . That is, you do it in the first person (me, us). This is what helps convey the detail. That’s why you need to be an eyewitness.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, reports that tell us about events of the past. But that is a more difficult job.
Time flows from the beginning to the end of the event. That is, the beginning and the end of the report coincides with the beginning and the end of the event.
That doesn’t mean you have to describe every minute. For example, you are reporting from a concert, and you record absolutely every number. Such and such artist performed, followed by such and such, and so on.
No, you can’t do that!
You can leave something out and mark only the main events, details and important moments. It’s not precise timing. But there is a certain sequence of actions.
There must be action in the reportage. That is, something has to happen. Someone has to do something. If no one does not do anything, then it will get from the category of “just beautiful”.
Take note of the bright details. What was special. What created the atmosphere of the event.
For example, at the concert could be a special smell backstage. It could also be some introductory music that was playing before the concert began.
There is also the sign of zigzagging .
That is, when you read a reportage, there is a narrative first. Then we are told a vivid scene. Some interesting detail is described or important quotes are inserted. Then comes the narration, and then the interesting points are repeated again.
That is, the author in this zigzag way tells us about the event and gives us an idea of what is happening. And then interesting details takes us directly to the scene. Thus, the journalist creates the effect of presence.
How to Write a Report
Here are some good tips on how to write a reportage. I will say right away that in the text, try to create the effect of presence. It is necessary for the reader to see everything through you with his own eyes.
Therefore, the material should be:
Characters and dialogues
Interesting details
Actions
Characters and dialogues.
The heroes can be the audience or some artist. It could be an artist who was at his exhibition. It could also be an audience member with whom you interacted. In general, there should be several characters.
It’s good if there are dialogues.
You can overhear dialogue between viewers by chance. Perhaps you yourself had a conversation with someone and then inserted a small one into the text. All of this brings the reportage to life very well!
It is worth noting that dialogues are not used as often as quotes . The latter are not usually taken from easy places. They are used in view of the fact that they clearly runs the theme of the reportage. That is, we do not insert a quotation in an empty place.
And not necessarily that the quote was written from some important person (the director or organizer). After all, readers may be interested in the opinion of ordinary people. In this way, your material becomes even more interesting.
Details
A report from the scene of the event should have details. For example, what music was playing at the party, how people behaved, what they were selling and so on.
This does not mean that you describe absolutely everything (what I see, what I write). You show the details that you found curious. For example, you reveal details that you think convey the atmosphere of the event.
But don’t overdo the details!
A gross mistake is to begin to describe an event in too much detail. For example, they talk about every fold of the curtain. Or, when reporting from the scene of disasters, absolutely everything is described. Every fragment of a corpse they saw, all the debris, and so on.
When the situation is pressurized and there are a lot of details, then the reader’s eye gets “washed out”. He simply stops perceiving them. Therefore, it is better to have one vivid detail that conveys the atmosphere than a large excess of various small details.
Action
Be sure to be dynamic in the reportage. Something should be happening all the time. Time should not stop. You have some action going on all the time.
For example, some interesting and important action. You can fill your story with it. Remember, when describing an event, there is always a chain of actions.
Is it necessary to be present at the scene of the event to write a report?
If you write a text on someone else’s material (news reports, stories from television), it will be a reconstruction of the event, but not a report.
Sufficiently interesting and bright to make it, it is the task of a professional. But they tend to never do this. Although technically capable.
And novice authors are happy to do it. However, due to lack of experience and skill they do not succeed. So try to avoid this situation. Especially if you are a beginner. It is better to write about what you saw and where you were present
It is good if your vision of the situation is included in a vivid form . You can write caustically, ironically, humorously or enthusiastically about the event. It all depends on your attitude to the phenomenon.
It’s important that this attitude in general, was. That is, that you were not all the same, and you did not do it mechanically.
Examples of reporting.
For clarity, let’s look at some examples of reporting. There will be both good and bad choices.