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In the context of today's info-rigid world, the reporter is vehemently described as the professional that is in charge of bad news. He is an independent professional that equips himself with all the necessary tools a reporter would need to bring the ugly realities of life to his audience.
The reporter represents the hard truth and he never compromises real and genuine facts. This character gives him an edge on future stories and occurrences. Because of his graceful and unbiased mode of writing, he is quite remembered by his audience when he passes on.
Reporting in journalism is said to have its origin in the 19th century due to the birth of global media organisations that placed reporters on the high level of their preferential scales.
Reporters have a very strong and influential force on the people, such that their works can go as far as bringing down a highly, self-rated and corrupt politician to justice.
He is seen as a watchdog that is always there on time to sniff out bad and implicating "smells" from the political and moral society of his audience.
In the news organisation, reporters are the newsmen and newswomen on our streets gathering facts and figures. They are also the editors in the newsroom that are ever busy and ready to publish the raw truths, irrespective of whatever consequences that lies ahead. In a sense, it can be logical to say that reporters are so allergic to not proclaiming the truth, that they can choke if the fail to pass it on to the audience.
The reporter have been elevated and accorded several prominent positions in the society, positions that are even greater than royalty.
As a way of contrast to the political ruler, a reporter sees public interest as his essence of craftsmanship or professionalism. He checks his own interest to make sure it does not conflict with public interest or the harsh realities of truth. He is seen as someone who spots for mistake in the political arena, and he is so hated for that. Despite the way he is being despised, he never relents in making sure that the conscience of the people is aroused to see not just the fact about public officers, but also the 'gospel truth' in the government, with his reports.
A reporter can bring stories to the people either by pen and notepad or by captured images. A reporter that does the latter is said to be a photo reporter. A photo reporter leverages the advantages of conveying information through pictures by using his photo capturing device to gather images of people, events and places, which goes a long way to spark up the sensual desires of his audience. He knows that a single photo can speak louder than several logical words put together, and it is timeless and it varnishes distance.
Despite the provocative and illustrative goodness of photo news, a photo reporter may promote meanness and upset his audience with his photo stories if negatively used. That is why I regard photo stories as 'coloured exhibit'.
Nonetheless, the different approaches to news has really made reporting worth the while. A reporter (either pen, photo or comic) is known and identified as a good news person if he is enthusiastic, intuitive, relentless or aggressive in acquiring news, easy to talk to, curious to know and find out stories, strikes a balance in his process of gathering stories, patient, long suffering, friendly, reliable and punctual at events. He should also be responsible by not bending the truth about a story, be a good writer and communicator, avoid 'axe grinding' a person, time-conscious, desirable for facts and also be as accurate as possible while reporting.
He also is expected to be versatile in different areas of study, avoid taboos in writing, verifies rumours before publishing, a good answer seeker and a person that knows what can make a news. Reporters are really seen as very important people because of their inevitable role in the society.
The newsroom is one place in the media house that you find reporters that are yet to take an organised pattern of doing things in the media profession. With the disorganised sets of gadgets and writing materials littered on the table, a stranger will see the newsroom as no different from a place where madmen and madwomen operate.
There are several segments or stands in the newsroom. A table holding all kinds of recording equipment and newspapers stand out as the desk of the news editor. He sits and collects on-the-spot stories from a reporter that operates the central radio. The reporters simply stays in the same room with the editor to allow him call for anyone he may need for certain issues.
A copy reader also has a desk close to the news editor in the newsroom. He simply buries his head in stacks of rewritten scripts, and he signals the attention of a reporter when needed.
No doubt, the chaos in the newsroom makes it uncomfortable for people who are no time wasters.
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