 |
| Radio News Reporting and Production |
Radio
News, Reporting and Production
MCM515
VU
LESSON
18
INTERPRETATIVE
REPORTING I
Interpretative
reporting means a kind of
reporting in which reporter
finds out the details of the
event. It is
done
normally after the breaking news has
gone on air and people are
waiting for other details of
the same
news
item.
Origin
of Interpretative Reporting
Before,
during and even after the
1st world war newspaper
reporters were restricted to
factual reporting
only.
While reporting, they concentrated mostly
on the following questions:
1)
Who
attacked whom?
2)
Where
the war was going on?
3)
When
the attack was carried
out?
4)
The
loss of a country.
5)
The
gain of a country.
6)
The
new advancement in war.
In
this kind of reporting the neglected
questions to be answered were
why & how? Why the world
got into
war,
how a country got defeated?
The reasons and causes of
the war were not reported.
People were
unaware
of the reasons of the war. Associated
Press of America was held responsible
for keeping people
unaware
of expected war and the
reasons of war. In 1920s and
1930s reporters were trained to
make
Interpretative
Reporting out of
factual reporting.
Growth
of Interpretative Reporting
By
late 1920s newspaper readers
had grown more demanding
and they started expecting
something more
than
what was used to be given in newspapers
in the name of reporting. After the
stock market crash in
Europe
in 1929 and the depression
years of 30s the reporting
got a turn. Till then
radio had been
not
invented
but had had popularity as
well being a speaking
newspaper. News
was, the stock market is
crashed
to death and in the name of
interpretative reporting radio
stations started putting on air
the
discussions
trying to reach the causes
and reasons of this tremendous
economic collapse, history
had ever
witnessed.
Economists sat in those
discussions and they tried to
find out the solutions to this
collapse.
Likewise
newspapers published articles based on
interpretative reporting.
Till
the 2nd world war, interpretative
reporting got currency in
news papers, magazines and
on radio, so
much
so, the interpretative reporting
had grown to this extent that the
war was not unexpected
for most of
the
Americans and after it broke
out they did not get
surprised as they had been in
case of 1st world war.
Now
people knew the reasons as well.
It
was only because of the
interpretative reporting that
severe kind of hatred against the
war developed
among
the people and the peace loving nations
sat together, come up with the
sublime objective that was
to
save
the nations from the devastating
repercussions of wars, and
these discussions lead the
world to the
formation
of United Nations.
In
the present age of media explosion no
news channel is expected
without interpretative reporting
and
discussions;
and news commentaries are
heard and watched with
eagerness and
interest.
Reporting
is not merely the reporting of
facts of any event but it is
more about the reasons and
purposes of
the
happenings, the causes of accidents, the
aftereffects of natural calamities and
the future prospects of
the
on
going talks between two
leaders as well.
52
Radio
News, Reporting and Production
MCM515
VU
Essentials
of Interpretative Reporting
1.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The
interpretative reporting builds up
structure on the foundations of factual
background of any news
story.
Most
important 4 Ws in factual background are
as under:
What---?
When---?
Where---?
Who----?
Sometimes
`What' is more important
than other question
words.
For
instance, what happened---?
The
happening may be as follows:
1)
Train got off the
rails.
2)
Earthquake played havoc with
people.
3)
Pakistan and India signed an
agreement of bilateral trade.
Sometimes,
who is more
important.
Who
won the match?
West
Indies or Australia?
Who
played first?
Pakistan
or India?
In
some stories where is
equally important.
Where
did two busses
collide?
Where
did torrential rainfall
come?
Sometimes
when is more important.
When
is the first match between
India and Pakistan?
When
are the presidents of two
countries meeting?
Most
important questions in Interpretative
Reporting
Why
and How
Why
a country attacked on the other
one?
There
is a raise in salaries so that
employees may cope with the
price hike. (What & why)
In
order to reduce expenditure the organization
will go under down
sizing.
`How'
means
details
to explain how
something occurred.
2.
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
Eye
witness account is the statement of the
person who was present at
the spot when any accident or
event
took
place. Eye witness'
statement is more important
when the news is about
accidents, fire
stories,
earthquake,
floods, etc.
The
expressions of eyewitnesses must be
recorded with their names
and identifications.
53
Radio
News, Reporting and Production
MCM515
VU
3.
INTERVIEWS
Interviews
of concerned people such as Police
officials, fire brigade, social
workers, injured ones,
relatives
of
dead ones, etc. are very
important to build an interpretative
report.
54