The first rule of reporting is to create an EXPECTATION OF PRESENCE.
The reader should get the impression that he or she has been there, sees, hears and perceives what is happening with the author of the report. The report does not tell about the event, but shows how it happened.
Therefore, the reporter must always be at the scene of the event. When preparing a report, the method of observation is used: the journalist, in order to write a report, goes to the place of the event, follows the development of actions, identifies key moments, records the behavior of people – participants and eyewitnesses of the events.
The following techniques help create the effect of presence.
1) Using vivid details and details.
It is important to make verbal sketches.
Describe the facial expressions, facial expressions, clothing of the participants of the event, as well as their speech and behavior. You need to be able to draw a portrait of the character with a few strokes to be realistic. Whether it will be a description of the features of speech, gait, gaze – it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to catch some characteristic detail:
“In our long corridor appeared a gray-haired uncle, serious and quiet, with a household bag in his hands.”
The description of the surroundings is very important. For example, in a report on the problem of pollution, the impact is created through the description of a single fact, taken out of the observed landscape:
“A cormorant struggles to waddle out to the shore. He can barely drag his slimy wings, covered in fuel oil…”
Details can be not only visually perceived objects, but also sounds, smells, kinesthetic sensations.
2) Introduction of short dialogues, small interviews, replicas into the report.
The second rule of reporting is to create dynamism.
The dynamism of the narrative is related to the length of the action in time and space. The reporter strives to show the reader as quickly as possible the whole picture of the event at all stages of its development. The reporter performs the task of recreating the “story of the event” as an eyewitness or participant in it. Dynamism and tension of the narrative are achieved by dividing the story of the event into separate episodes and by correctly defining the shifts of episodes.
Among the techniques of creating dynamism it is worthwhile to elaborate on the following:
1) change of point of view (perspective), i.e. showing the same phenomenon from different angles (for example, from the audience – and from behind the scenes; from the perspective of the subject of action – from the perspective of the object of action);
2) alternation of actions and information explaining them. Explanatory information includes the background of the event and putting what is seen into a broader context. In the reportage, such information is presented in portions in the form of “interruptions”;
3) change of plans: from describing the picture as a whole, to a single element, and then to its details or details;
4) change of pace of speech: presented in writing by changing the length of sentences, the size of paragraphs. Thus, long sentences and paragraphs create a sense of measured narration, the reduction of paragraphs and the use of short sentences – movement dynamic, “jerks”. You can change the tempo by switching from “live” language (people’s replicas) to formal language.
To change the pace of the narrative, varying the verb tenses is used: to create an effect in the text, where verbs are used in the past tense, an insertion is made using the present tense, and vice versa.
The third rule of reporting is OPERATING.
Reports are written immediately after the event has occurred. The reportage always indicates where and at what time the event took place.
The fourth rule of reporting is DOCUMENTALITY.
Reportage does not tolerate fiction. It is the reporting of real events, showing real actions, talking to real eyewitnesses and participants in the events. Reportage cannot be acted. It is impossible to reconstruct certain events, to repeat them for filming.
The fifth rule of reportage is the emotionality of the narration.
The purpose of reporting is not so much to inform about the event that happened, as to give the reader an opportunity to visit the place of the event itself. This goal gives the author the attitude not to present his emotions in a ready-made form, but to create such conditions, i.e. to describe the event in such a way as to arouse similar emotions in the reader. Here is how the expert explains it: “For example, a journalist entered a room, and it seemed to him gloomy and dismal. So, in a report, you can’t directly write that the room was gloomy and dreary. You have to describe the room, but describe it in such a way that the reader himself comes to the conclusion that the room is gloomy and depressing. Or in one report, the journalist needed to show that a sick child sees almost nothing. To do this, he describes a scene where he says goodbye to the child and his mother, and the child waves to the other side because he can’t see where the journalist has gone. Generally speaking, when writing a report, a phenomenon should be described, not evaluated. The reader will give the evaluation.
Accurately chosen comparisons and metaphors help create emotionality. For example, “And now the device for determining psychic abilities is plugged in, as if it were an ordinary kettle. The author did not directly express his attitude to the device for determining psychic abilities, but by comparing it to an ordinary kettle he conveyed a feeling of mistrust and a certain comicality of the situation.
The sixth rule of reporting is to think about composition.
It is very important to think of the composition of the reportage so that the event “unfolds” before the eyes of the viewer. Reportage is a narrative genre: the basis of the narrative is a sequential description of the event. It also works to create the effect of presence: the reader together with the reporter “lives” the event from its beginning to end. Time in the reportage is discrete (intermittent), conditional, because it does not correspond in duration to the real time of the described event, but it always moves in one direction: from the beginning to the end of the described event.
At the beginning of the reportage an introductory scene is given. Its role is to attract the reader to the story.
This is followed by the actual reportage description. It includes various digressions, dialogues with the characters, the author’s own impressions. It is important to successfully select “speaking” details, interesting details that help recreate the reality displayed.
In the end, the author summarizes his impressions, assessments and opinions. Here it is important to avoid moralizing: the reader can be led to a certain conclusion, but not to impose it in ready-made form. Comment by an expert: “The journalist puts the reader on like a glove, does what he or she wants with him or her – guides them through such stories, conclusions and facts in order to eventually lead them to a conclusion that the reader will accept as his or her own.
The seventh rule of reporting is the ACTIVE ROLE of the AUTHOR.
The author in reporting is an active protagonist, an active observer and commentator of events. In this genre, he is allowed to demonstrate his own view of what is happening by sharing his own subjective emotions and judgments.
The eighth rule of reportage is to REVIEW THE NEWS.
TV reportage is thematically staged.
This can be a reportage about a solemn ceremony or a military operation, a disaster or a strike, a sudden collapse of the dollar or a mass resignation in the government. The main thing is that in such reporting, a new event, the sequence of its development, becomes decisive. The event is always inviolable. It passes in real time and space independently of the reporter, subject only to its own logic. You can look at it, you can look into it as much as you like, you can think about it, but you cannot change it by addressing it to the viewer. This is why the reporter’s word does not organize or lead the event, but follows it.