How to write a report
What topics are better suited for reporting, how to observe what is happening, where to start and how to end the text, what is the work with plans, and why some reports are "delayed", while others are not.
Step one. We make our way to where the reader has not been.
The interest in reporting directly depends on the inaccessibility of the place visited by the journalist. German journalism instructor Michael Haller recommends that report writers “overcome distance and barriers” - go on long journeys, immerse themselves in social groups alien to readers and infiltrate closed institutions. For example, go to the cold pole, spend the night with homeless people at the station, live in a monastery, visit a psychiatric hospital. Or use
https://essay-service-reddit.com/.
Another source of reporting topics is the journalist's experiments, which he later describes. For example, he works as a taxi driver, organizes a rally, or tries to sell potatoes grown at the dacha on the market. This is also called the "mask method" or "a journalist changes profession." A kind of experiment is showing something ordinary from an unexpected angle. For example, all Muscovites rode the metro. But rarely did anyone drive their route in the driver's cab or in a wheelchair.
Step two. We identify the conflict.
In order for a report to be "protracted", it must be written according to the laws of drama:
- there is a problem (tie);
- the characters are trying to solve it (development of the action);
- approaching a solution (culmination);
- either succeed or not (denouement).
For example, drug addicts in a brothel find out that the drug is over (tie). They go to the store, steal food (they are almost caught), hand it over to another store (they are almost cheated), buy medicines at the pharmacy (for which there is barely enough money) and begin to prepare a drug from them (which almost turns out to be spoiled) for the wrong combination of components). Note that there is a whole series of climaxes here, and each but the last one turns out to be false, since the real obstacle is yet to come. Finally, the drug is ready, everyone injected, although the buzz is not at all as strong and lasting as we would like (denouement).
In some cases, the conflict lies on the surface. For example, in a war, a detachment is given the task of occupying a height or holding a height, and the journalist is left to see whether the task is completed. Therefore, there is a saying "War is easy to describe."
In other cases, the conflict needs to be discerned and understood. For example, a journalist came to a reindeer herders' camp, where nothing seems to be happening. Everything is as usual. But if you look closely, you can see the brutal struggle against cold, disease, lack of food for animals, predators and climate changes that disrupt the usual way of life behind these usual actions.
In the report from the ceremony, the conflict lies in the discrepancy between what was planned and what happened. Introduce the organizers of the ceremony as directors who want to show the performance. The participants in the event are actors who play their roles well or badly. Feel like a theater critic and see what they did or didn't.
If you are preparing a portrait reportage, the conflict should be sought between the responsibilities, desires and capabilities of the person (should, but does not want, or wants, but cannot, or cannot).
Step three. We are observing purposefully.
The preparation of a reportage necessarily includes observation of what is happening. Otherwise, it is impossible to create a “presence effect” in the text.
Observation should be focused and focused on finding emotionally vivid episodes that reveal conflict. The two key phrases here are "emotionally vivid episodes" and "reveal conflict." Everything else is superfluous. Do not repeat the mistake of novice journalists who try to record everything, write several notebooks, and then it turns out that many emotionally vivid scenes do not work for the conflict in any way, and they have to be deleted, and, on the contrary, there are not enough scenes that reveal the conflict. ...
How to write a report
What topics are better suited for reporting, how to observe what is happening, where to start and how to end the text, what is the work with plans, and why some reports are "delayed", while others are not.
Step one. We make our way to where the reader has not been.
The interest in reporting directly depends on the inaccessibility of the place visited by the journalist. German journalism instructor Michael Haller recommends that report writers “overcome distance and barriers” - go on long journeys, immerse themselves in social groups alien to readers and infiltrate closed institutions. For example, go to the cold pole, spend the night with homeless people at the station, live in a monastery, visit a psychiatric hospital. Or use https://essay-service-reddit.com/.
Another source of reporting topics is the journalist's experiments, which he later describes. For example, he works as a taxi driver, organizes a rally, or tries to sell potatoes grown at the dacha on the market. This is also called the "mask method" or "a journalist changes profession." A kind of experiment is showing something ordinary from an unexpected angle. For example, all Muscovites rode the metro. But rarely did anyone drive their route in the driver's cab or in a wheelchair.
Step two. We identify the conflict.
In order for a report to be "protracted", it must be written according to the laws of drama:
- there is a problem (tie);
- the characters are trying to solve it (development of the action);
- approaching a solution (culmination);
- either succeed or not (denouement).
For example, drug addicts in a brothel find out that the drug is over (tie). They go to the store, steal food (they are almost caught), hand it over to another store (they are almost cheated), buy medicines at the pharmacy (for which there is barely enough money) and begin to prepare a drug from them (which almost turns out to be spoiled) for the wrong combination of components). Note that there is a whole series of climaxes here, and each but the last one turns out to be false, since the real obstacle is yet to come. Finally, the drug is ready, everyone injected, although the buzz is not at all as strong and lasting as we would like (denouement).
In some cases, the conflict lies on the surface. For example, in a war, a detachment is given the task of occupying a height or holding a height, and the journalist is left to see whether the task is completed. Therefore, there is a saying "War is easy to describe."
In other cases, the conflict needs to be discerned and understood. For example, a journalist came to a reindeer herders' camp, where nothing seems to be happening. Everything is as usual. But if you look closely, you can see the brutal struggle against cold, disease, lack of food for animals, predators and climate changes that disrupt the usual way of life behind these usual actions.
In the report from the ceremony, the conflict lies in the discrepancy between what was planned and what happened. Introduce the organizers of the ceremony as directors who want to show the performance. The participants in the event are actors who play their roles well or badly. Feel like a theater critic and see what they did or didn't.
If you are preparing a portrait reportage, the conflict should be sought between the responsibilities, desires and capabilities of the person (should, but does not want, or wants, but cannot, or cannot).
Step three. We are observing purposefully.
The preparation of a reportage necessarily includes observation of what is happening. Otherwise, it is impossible to create a “presence effect” in the text.
Observation should be focused and focused on finding emotionally vivid episodes that reveal conflict. The two key phrases here are "emotionally vivid episodes" and "reveal conflict." Everything else is superfluous. Do not repeat the mistake of novice journalists who try to record everything, write several notebooks, and then it turns out that many emotionally vivid scenes do not work for the conflict in any way, and they have to be deleted, and, on the contrary, there are not enough scenes that reveal the conflict. ...
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