News and Report

Content

• The news
• Features of the news
• The report
• Features of the report
• Differences between news and report
• Examples of news
• Reporting examples

The News and the reportage They are two forms of journalistic texts, which are characterized by their informative character and by being disseminated in the mass media of written communication such as the printed newspaper, magazines or digital news media.

The news

The News It is a text of immediate validity and daily elaboration, which reviews for readers a specific fact or event that may be interesting for public opinion.

The most recent and relevant global or local day-to-day events are newsworthy events that can be reported only once and then lose their validity.

The news respond to a strict criterion of novelty, so they never address historical, reflective or playful events or events. They are objective texts, truthful, concrete and relatively brief.

Features of the news

• Inverted pyramid. The text obeys the inverted pyramid: the first paragraph provides all the specific information about what happened and, as the text progresses, more details and supplementary information are added.
• Objectivity. Presents no or minimal presence of the journalist's voice and absolutely no opinion or evident position regarding the reported events. The language is direct, concise, without poetic flight, without fictional resources or ramblings.
• Interest. What is reported is striking for the community and not for a specific individual. It adheres to a specific issue, affiliated with the body or the segment of the media in which it appears: science and technology, sports, culture, politics, international, etc.
• Novelty. The fact is novel, that is, it has a sense of timing and will try to report the event in question before other media. Reviewing a news item already given is of no interest.
• Veracity. The information must be truthful, not have fictionalized content and use reliable sources to inform society responsibly.

The report

Reports are planned documentary inquiries, the purpose of which is to inform but from a deeper and broader perspective than news. They are long texts and abundant in details, which even use narrative resources, personal postures and expressive turns that are not used in the simplest texts of journalism.

The report emerged in the 17th century, when news writers fed the gazettes with impressions of their travels, opinions and stories. The first reports date back to the nineteenth century, when journalism found its place in war environments and special emissaries were sent to portray conflicts and later reconstruct experiences to inform the public.

With the arrival of the new media and new technologies, other forms of information emerged close to reporting, such as the photo report (visual report) or the audiovisual documentary. However, today the report is still the product of a sustained research effort and therefore requires more time, preparation and talent from the journalist.

• See also: Report

Features of the report

• Investigation. They use expression mechanisms to collect diverse data and perspectives on the subject.
• Means. They make use of interviews, photographs, reproductions and even dramatizations if necessary, in order to convey the investigated in greater depth.
• Extension. They require considerable physical space and sustained effort to research, organize, write, and correct the text.
• Depth. They focus on a specific topic and can approach it from history, diverse perspectives and even dare to speculate on future events.

Differences between news and report

1. Validity. While the news is ephemeral and fast, the report lasts a little longer: it can be reread later without losing its validity.
2. Extension. The news is brief and concise, while a report has the space and time it deems necessary.
3. Objectivity. Both types of text must be objective and truthful, but the writing of the news is punctual and devoid of nuances, while in the report it is possible to find points of view, speculations and reflections.
4. Expressive resources. The news may be accompanied by a photograph, but in general all the information is offered in a flat, simple and direct way. The report, on the other hand, can make use of rhetorical, expressive, poetic resources, photographs, interviews, archive material, etc.
5. Authorship. The news is not usually signed, nor does it belong to an author, but rather is the product of a newsroom that works together. Instead, every report bears the names of those responsible, even if it is an investigative team.

Examples of news

1. Crisis in Chile: Piñera announces that his country will not host the APEC meeting or the COP-25 Climate Change Conference
2. Forever 21 files for bankruptcy in the United States
3. A dream 2019 for the Springboks: Rugby Championship and World Cup Champions
4. Nicolás Maduro brings Christmas forward
5. Facebook gained 27% less until September, but continues to grow in users

Reporting examples

1. 30 years after the end of the wall that divided two worlds: why the Berlin Wall was built and what it meant for the Cold War
2. The drama of living without water in Venezuela
3. US border- Mexico: the images that illustrate the “breaking point” at which the migrant crisis has reached
4. Islamic State: the threat continues
5. El Salvador, death around every corner