The Important Role of News Reporters Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resea

The Important Role of News Reporters Every morning when I get up, the very first thing I do is turn on the TV--but not for cartoons or MTV. It has become a habit for me to watch the news in the morning. I feel the need to know what is going on because I know that no matter where the news happens, 99 percent of the time it will, directly or indirectly, affect me or people I care about. The broadcast media has become a part of my life and the lives of almost everyone in the Western world. We may not know the names of our senators, but Katie Couric or Tom Brokaw are familiar names in every American household. Not many of us realize, however, that the job of the news reporter is not as glorious as we imagine. This paper will offer you a closer look on what goes on behind the TV screen or radio microphone. Like all other discourse communities, news reporters have their own jargon. It consists mostly of technical terms describing different aspects of news production. In radio, there are voicers, readers, Q&A's, and packages--all of these are types of stories. Voicer is a news story voiced by a reporter; reader is a script of a news story read by a news anchor; Q&A is an interview; and package is a news story produced and read by a reporter that also includes parts of interviews or natural sound. A particular feature of a news reporter's jargon is that very often there are a couple of different terms for one concept. For example, other words for "package" are "wrap" and "feature"; "cut," "bite" (or "soundbite") and "actuality" all refer to a part of an interview. But in most cases, the jargon of the news reporters is much more understandable to an outsider than, for example, the specialized language of chemists. The goal of repo... ...oofness hurt press credibility, ABC's Cokie Roberts says." Freedom Forum Online News. http://www.freedomforum.org/freedomforum/news/971003ca.html (9 October 1997). Germer, Fawn. "How Do You Feel?" American Journalism Review June 1995: 36-42. Kemkes, Michelle. " 'If it bleeds it leads,' isn't the motto at KVUE-TV." Minnesota News Council Newsletter, Summer 1996. http://www.mtn.org/newscouncil/Summer96/KVUE.html (9 October 1997). Rather, Dan. "Journalism and the Public Trust." Humanist Nov./Dec. 1990: 5-8. Scanlan, Frank. Personal interview. 10 October, 1997. Shaw, David. "Beyond Skepticism: A Negative Spin on the News." Los Angeles Times 17 April 1996: Al. Shook, Frederick, et al. The Broadcast News Process. 5th ed. Englewood: Morton Publishing, 1996. Valente, Judith. "Do You Believe What Newspeople Tell You?" Parade 2 March 1997: 4-6.