Let’s look at an example of how not to write a reportage text.
A bad example of a newspaper reportage
In fact, it’s similar to a junior high school student’s essay. In journalism, such reports are often categorized as “beautiful.”
Here is such an enthusiastic reporter. He likes everything. It’s beautiful there, and it’s great here. That is going one solid emotion.
You’re unlikely to have seen these competitions through the eyes of a journalist. It seems that the details are there (bagels can be remembered). But there is no reasonable conclusion that Sochi is ready for the Olympics.
We did not understand what was the difference between performances of the Swedes, Japanese and ours. We did not understand why Sochi is ready for the Olympics, or what the “Russian hills” are like.
In fact, it is not a rare mistake of many authors!
Such elements are present in many reports. So make sure that you do not have that. Do not let your whole material is reduced to beautiful, great or cool.
Another bad example.
Let’s look at another bad example of the beginning of a reportage.
There are details here, and they’re pretty well described. Everything seems fine. But there is no action and no momentum. Nothing happened.
So in fact, it is an essay, the beginning of a story or . However, it is not a reportage. There is no vivid event.
Good example of reportage.
Let’s take apart a good example of reportage. Let’s also try to find the important elements (characters, details, dialogues and actions ). Here is the link to the full text.
A good example of a reportage headline and lead
There is a fairly intriguing headline. Then comes the introduction (lead ), which conveys the event itself. After reading it, you can understand that the essence is already conveyed in the first paragraph.
An example of the text of a report
In the second paragraph we are shown an element of direct speech dialogue. Next comes the continuation of the introduction of the hero.
Continuation of the example of an analytical report
This we have an example of research reportage. A man went to this place specifically to investigate this phenomenon. He tells us about it, as through the story of one particular person.
Just below is the story of the village itself.
Before that was the backstory (why people are looking for gold here). Next comes the story of this man and the journalist himself, who travels through the village. The journalist will describe the conversation with residents, what was happening during the day and evening.
That is, all the journey will be made in the genre of reportage.
In this example, there will be characters, dialogue, and action. The action is not as intense. However, there is a dynamic from the beginning of the journey to the end.
There is also an event (what happened ). And what happened is that in the Philippines, houses are washed away all the time. The journalist went to investigate it.
That’s the end of it!
Now you know how a news report or some event is created. Topics for writing can be quite varied. The main thing is to stick to the rules that were mentioned in the article. Also, for practice, do not forget to analyze various examples.
And these three elements interact in the course of a reportage.-relationship of the environment to the hero (say, how it affects, how it creates habits, forms character and behavior model)-relationship of the hero to the environment-relationship of the heroes-relationship of the journalist to the environment (constant surprise, surprise replaced by understanding, surprise replaced by negation)-relationship of the journalist to the hero-relationship of the hero to the journalist. By and large, the journalist’s task is not to tell how dumplings are made. If it were done by robots, it would not be an interesting reportage. The most important thing – to show the stories of people, their lives, to reveal the characters and views on life, on society, on themselves, in the end. However, another important point is that the journalist himself begins to open up. He gets into new conditions, goes through difficulties or through the stories of his characters and rethinks his views, his life.
In this case, the journalist has a better chance of seeing the real lives of the characters he will be writing about. Moreover, the reader will have more confidence in what is written, since everything stated – verified by the correspondent on his own skin. It brings to mind Dumas father, who is said to have written nothing that he had not tried himself.