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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
516
VU
LESSON
35
PREPARATION
OF SPECIAL REPORTS
Investigative
journalism
Uncovering
Truth
Ultimately,
the job of the journalist -- especially
the investigative journalist -- is to
uncover the truth
about
situations and explain that
truth to an audience in a clear and
succinct manner.
Even
when there seems to be a major
injustice involved, it is not the
responsibility of the reporter to
be
an
advocate of a particular viewpoint, only
to bring all of the related
facts to the public's
attention.
In
the case of complex stories
and situations, this does
not exclude the necessary
interpretation of the
facts.
In
mid-2002 two major stories
were reported in the U.S. press: the
molestation of hundreds of
children
by
clergy and the largest corporate
bankruptcy in U.S. history. In
both cases the incriminating
facts had
been
successfully hidden from the public as
the situations continued to get
progressively worse.
Had
the truth been uncovered and publicized
earlier, something could have been done
to head off the
pain
and suffering that a great many
people had to subsequently endure.
This
includes the many additional
children who were molested and the scores
of people who lost all
of
their
retirement funds while some
corporate executives pocketed millions of
dollars.
In
both cases it was the
journalist's job to uncover the
facts that people were rather
successfully hiding
and
bring these facts to the
public's attention; in other words, to
fulfill their role as "the
watchdogs of a
democratic
society." Generally, public exposure is
all that is needed to
initiate corrective
action.
Reportage
sometimes
refers to the total body of media coverage of a
particular topic or event,
including
news
reporting and analysis: "the extensive
reportage
of
recent events in x." This is
typically used in
discussions
of the media's general tone or angle or
other collective characteristics.
Reportage
is
also a term for an eye-witness genre of
journalism: an individual journalist's
report of
news,
especially when witnessed
firsthand, distributed through the media.
This style of reporting
is
often
characterized by travel and careful
observation.
Literary
reportage (pronounced
ray-por-taj) is the art of blending
documentary, reportage-style
observations,
with personal experience, perception, and evidence, in
a non-fiction form of
literature.
This
is perhaps more commonly called
creative nonfiction and is closely
related to New Journalism.
The
prose
of such reporting tends to be more
polished and longer than in
newspaper articles.
Investigative
journalism is
when reporters deeply investigate a
topic of interest, often involving
crime,
political
corruption, or some other
scandal.
There
is no more important contribution that we
can make to society than strong,
publicly-spirited
investigative
journalism. Tony Burman,
editor-in-chief of CBC
News.
De
Burgh (2000) states that:
"An investigative journalist is a man or
woman whose profession it is to
discover
the truth and to identify
lapses from it in whatever media
may be available. The act of
doing
this
generally is called investigative
journalism and is distinct from
apparently similar work done
by
police,
lawyers, auditors and
regulatory bodies in that it is not
limited as to target, not
legally founded
and
closely connected to
publicity".
An
investigative journalist may
spend a considerable period researching
and preparing a
report,
sometimes
months or years, whereas a typical
daily or weekly news
reporter writes items
concerning
immediately
available news. Most
investigative journalism is done by
newspapers, wire services
and
freelance
journalists. An investigative
journalist's final report
may take the form of an
exposé.
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News Reporting and Production MCM
516
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The
Investigation
The
investigation will often
require an extensive number of interviews
and travel; other instances
might
call
for the reporter to make use
of activities such as surveillance
techniques, analysis of documents,
investigations
of the performance of any kind of
equipment involved in an accident, patent
medicine,
scientific
analysis, social and legal issues,
and the like.
Investigative
journalism requires the scrutiny of
details, fact-finding, and physical
effort. An
investigative
journalist must have an analytical and
incisive mind with strong
self-motivation to carry on
when
all doors are closed,
when facts are being covered
up or falsified and so on.
Some
of the means reporters can
use for their
fact-finding:
·
Studying
neglected sources, such as archives, phone
records, address books, tax
records and
license
records.
·
Talking
to neighbors.
·
Using
subscription research.
·
Anonymous
sources.
Investigative
journalism can be contrasted
with analytical reporting.
According to De Burgh
(2000)
analytical
journalism takes the data
available and reconfigures it,
helping us to ask questions about
the
situation
or statement or see it in a different
way, whereas investigative
journalists go further and
also
want
to know whether the situation
presented to us is the reality.
Consequences
Consequences
for society as a whole
include:
·
revision
of institutional policies
·
changes
in the law
Some
of the potential consequences for
the subjects of successful
investigative journalism
include:
·
loss
of job
·
loss
of professional accreditation
·
payment
of fines
·
indictment
and conviction
·
loss
of personal and professional
reputation
·
critical
consequences for family
members/associates involved in unrelated
criminal acts
discovered
through the process of
investigation
Professional
references
In
The Reporter's Handbook: An
Investigator's Guide to Documents and
Techniques, Steve Weinberg
defined
investigative journalism
as:
Reporting,
through one's own initiative
and work product, matters of
importance to readers, viewers
or
listeners.
In many cases, the subjects of the
reporting wish the matters
under scrutiny to
remain
undisclosed.
There are currently
university departments for
teaching investigative
journalism.
Conferences
are conducted presenting peer reviewed
research into investigative
journalism.
Breaking
news is a
current event that
broadcasters feel warrants the
interruption of scheduled
programming
in order to report its
details. Its use is often
loosely assigned to the most
significant story
of
the moment or a story that is being
covered live. It could be a story
that is simply of wide interest
to
viewers
and has little impact
otherwise.
Format
The
format of a special report or breaking
news event on television
commonly consists of an
opening
graphic,
featuring music which adds
an emphasis on the importance of the
event. This is
usually
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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
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followed
with the introduction of a news
anchor, who welcomes the
viewer to the broadcast and
introduces
the story at hand.
Once
the story is introduced, the network
may choose to continue to show a
live shot of the anchor or
may
cut away to video or images of the
story that is being followed
during the broadcast.
Additionally,
the
coverage may be passed to a reporter at
the location of the breaking event,
possibly sharing more
information
about the story as it
breaks.
Depending
upon the story being
followed, the report may last
only a few minutes, or continue
for
multiple
hours at a time. If coverage continues for an extended
amount of time, the network
may
integrate
analysis about the story through
analysts in-studio, via.
Phone, satellite, or through
other
means
of communication.
When
the coverage comes to a close, the
network may either resume
programming that was
occurring
prior
to the event or begin new
programming, depending upon the amount of
time spent on the
coverage.
Usage
While
in the past programming interruptions
were restricted to extremely urgent news,
such breaks are
now
common at 24-hour news channels
which may have an anchor available
for live interruption at
any
time.
Some networks largely
emphasize this, even advertising the
station as being "first for
breaking
news".
The
term breaking news has come
to replace the older use of news
bulletin. There has been
widespread
use
of breaking news at the local
level, particularly when one
station in a market wants to
emphasize the
exclusivity
of coverage. Not all viewers
agree that stories assigned
breaking news rise to the
significance
or level of interest that warrant
such a designation.
Criticism
When
a network begins coverage of a breaking
story, the early details
about the stories are
commonly
sketchy,
usually due to the limited amount of
resources available to the reporters for
information during
the
time the story initially
breaks.
Another
criticism has been the
diluting
of
the importance of breaking news by the
need of 24-hour
news
channels to fill time, using
the title when covering any
number of soft news
stories.
Know
Your Story
Before
shooting it's vital that
you know the whole story
and how your sequence
fits into it.
Story
summaries
are one tool you
can use to ensure you
don't lose the plot. If you
have time, pictures and
storyboards
can help to visualise your
ideas.
·
How
to do it
·
Decide
the story's angle.
·
Write
a summary or sketch storyboards.
·
However
"last minute" the shoot, make
sure you have a clear
brief.
·
Check
that what you're doing is
realistic in the time available -
don't compromise your
safety.
·
Unforeseen
events can occur - be ready to
react if the story changes,
and follow new
developments.
·
Remind
yourself "I will always focus on
telling the story".
Covering
News vs. Making
News
Scientists
say that when you
observe an event you in some
way change it. Leaving the
esoteric concepts
of
theoretical physics aside, we know
that the presence of news reporters and
cameras not only
changes
events,
but it can even create
news.
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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
516
VU
At
Times, a Dangerous Profession
In
the may countries, reporters have been
killed before their stories
could be aired. Numerous books
and
articles
document this.
Although
some of these authors might be
seen as "conspiracy theorists," the death
of journalists and
scores
of informants on the eve of important
revelations can't all be
viewed as coincidence.
According
to the Committee to Protect Journalists, between 1992
and 2001, 399 journalists
were killed
"because
of their work." By 2007, more
than 100 journalists had
been killed in the Iraq and
Afghanistan
wars.
In the last decade years more than
1,000 journalists have been
killed around the
world.
Suffice
it to say, investigating and breaking
important stories often
carries a degree of professional
and
personal
risk. At the same time, this
is the way awards are won
and professional careers are
advanced --
and,
far more importantly, wrongs
are rectified and needed
social change is
instituted.
News
and Politics
Most
of the nation's newspapers and magazines and
television stations, seeking greater profits
through
larger
audiences, fed the public a
diet of crime news,
celebrity gossip, and soft features,
choosing to
exclude
more serious topics that news
managers feared would not
stimulate public
attention.
CNN
Journalist Peter Arnett,
with one explanation as to why
Americans tend to be less
informed about
world
events than citizens of many
other countries.
At
the same time we need to put
some things into
perspective.
For
many years TV has
represented the number one source of
news and information for the
vast
majority
of people in industrialized
nations.
When
a scandal is uncovered in a news show, we
often see action taken. When
the spotlight of TV
scrutiny
is focused on a problem in a distant
land, and there is public outrage, we
often see steps
taken
to
correct things. This is the
reason that third-world despot's
fear, and have taken great measures to
ban,
the
press, in general, the TV news in
particular.
Does
not the fear of exposure keep many on a
nobler path?
Often
the news isn't pleasant. As the
bearer of some unpopular
messages TV news has
generated many
critics.
In fact, TV news probably
gets more complaints than
any other type of
programming, especially
from
those who want to believe "a
different truth."
Many
longtime professionals remember a time
when newspapers and
electronic journalism were held
in
much
higher esteem -- primarily
because there was a "high
wall" separating news departments
and
bottom-line
corporate interests.
It
appears that the drop in
credibility has impacted where people
are getting their
news.
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