What a Reporter Does
Few of those who aspire to careers as television reporters have more than a vague notion of exactly what the job entails. The evidence is there on the screen 24 hours a day — but how reporters function, where their responsibilities begin and end, and how they link into the editorial chain is not so obvious. The public may also be forgiven for confusing the role of the reporter with that of anchor/newscaster or presenter, because the duties sometimes overlap. Reporting may indeed be seen as a natural stepping-stone to the safety and warmth of the studio, but once installed as part of the news-processing as opposed to news-gathering team, reporters are usually less originators of their own material than shapers of other people’s.
Origins of television journalism
Once you become a television journalist you join a young profession with its roots chiefly in newspapers, magazines and radio. It can be a confusing world. Many of those who work in it cannot quite bring themselves to admit they are part of show business, but job titles which once reflected a bond with print journalism are disappearing as broadcast journalist, editor, producer, video-journalist and other televisual terms become more established.
Reporting responsibilities
The role you have to fulfil depends entirely on your employer and the agenda of programme for which you are working. Local, regional, national and international newscasts each make their own demands. In some organisations you will be treated separately as a specialist: in others you will be expected to double up as a picture editor or camera operator.
Whatever title or additional duties you may be expected to undertake, your main task will be to ‘get the story’. This will invariably mean taking editorial responsibility for the content and shape of an entire item — assessing on the spot the newsworthiness of an event and the people in it, carrying out interviews, performing a piece to camera and recording a voice-over commentary, as well as co-ordinating the activities of support staff. You may also have to attend to the logistics of deadlines. No ‘Brownie points’ are won for a brilliant piece of work which arrives too late for inclusion in the programme for which it was intended. You may also expect to broadcast ‘live’.
But do not imagine you will spend all your working life on the road. You will be newsroom-bound for a large proportion of the time, engaged in tracking down leads, writing scripts or providing the voice-over for incoming agency pictures or compilations.
1. Conducts research on the spot
2. Decides content and shape
3. Supervises camera operator
4. Carries out interviews
5. Does piece to camera
6. Writes and records voice-over
7. Maintains base links
What a reporter does
In the field reporters are in charge of covering stories as the representatives of their programmes or news organisations. Responsibility includes management of the camera crew as well as control of editorial content. In some organisations the reporter will double as camera-operator and/or picture editor.