The reportage it is an investigative journalistic work carried out by a reporter. The purpose of this journalistic genre is to extensively reconstruct the narration of an event or a series of news events. It can be published in the written press or broadcast on radio and television.
It is a documentary approach to reality that is much more extensive and complete than the news story, with which it shares its need for formal objectivity, although every report expresses a point of view regarding the topic addressed and often contains opinions of its author.
The reports are immersions in the topic addressed and use all the resources of investigative journalism, such as interviews, images, videos, narrations or texts that offer the reader a complete and detailed informative point of view.
Types of report
- Scientific. Focused on novelty, it investigates recent advances in medical, biological, technological or specialized knowledge of general interest to the reader.
- Explanatory. A pedagogical work is proposed for the public, providing the greatest amount of details and explanations regarding the topic addressed to inform in depth.
- Investigative. Although all reports are, it is called an “investigative report” because the journalist assumes an almost detective work on the subject and discloses sensitive, secret or uncomfortable information that can even put his life at risk.
- Human interest. It focuses on making a specific human community visible or addressing sensitive issues for a target community.
- Formal. It is the most respectful variant of reporting, which does not include opinions and aspires to objectivity.
- Narrative. Similar to the chronicle, it uses stories and narrative reconstructions to provide information to the reader.
- Interpretative. The reporter allows himself the interpretation of the facts and situations, explaining to the reader his point of view based on the information obtained and with arguments derived from the investigation itself.
- Descriptive. The journalist addresses a topic of interest without including himself, providing descriptions of his object of interest.
Structure of the report
The usual structure of a report should include the following resources:
- Summary or index. Breakdown of the information you provide to the reader of a map of what is to be read.
- Contrast. Opposition of two positions, opinions, facts or perspectives that provide complexity to the issue and show both sides of the conflict, if any.
- Development. Deepening of the subject in its richness of nuances and perspectives or possible turns.
- Description. Description of the place of the events, of the moment or of any other contextual information necessary to frame the subject.
- Appointment. Opinion or statement on the subject, taken in quotation marks and referring to its author.
Report example
From the Caribbean to the Southern Cone: Venezuelan migration is an unstoppable phenomenon
by Fulgencio Garcia.
Many of the countries in the South of the continent are surprised by the recent wave of migration from the Caribbean: hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan citizens arrive at their airports each month and undertake the necessary migration procedures to settle, indefinitely, in their countries. Such a wave had never been experienced since the oil country and it shows that things, in the land of the Bolivarian Revolution, are not good at all.
11:00 hours, Ezeiza International Airport. A Conviasa plane has just arrived and appears on the screens with a little delay sign. Soon he will take the flight back to Venezuela, but this time he is empty. According to figures from the Argentine Migration Institute, two out of every three Venezuelans who enter Argentina initiate residency procedures using MERCOSUR agreements.
“The figures are not yet alarming, but it is undoubtedly an important migration,” said the president of this institute, Aníbal Mingotti, interviewed in his office located at the airport itself. “Most of the Venezuelans who entered until 2014 came with study or work plans, generally qualified professionals looking for opportunities or undertaking postgraduate courses,” he said.
It is estimated that there is in Argentina a figure already in excess of 20,000 Venezuelan migrants, most of whom reside in the Federal Capital. Something that seems evident with the opening of Caribbean food stores, especially in the Palermo neighborhood, which already rival those from Colombia, migrants for a long time. And although for many they still consist of a silent migration, difficult to distinguish, it is a verifiable phenomenon.
Motivations
Consulted regarding these figures, officials Heberto Rodríguez and Mario Sosa, cultural attachés of the Embassy in Argentina of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, located at av. Luis María Campos from the Palermo neighborhood, affirmed that it is a recent and minority phenomenon, which cannot at all be taken as a reference of the Venezuelan situation.
“Nothing to see, it is an isolated event,” said Sosa. “The migrant exchange between Argentina and Venezuela has always been common, many Argentines sought asylum in Caracas during the times of the dictatorship,” he explained, referring to the self-styled National Reorganization Process of the 70s and early 80s.
“Venezuela’s problems are undeniable,” said Rodríguez. “They are due to the economic war that the country’s right wing has waged against the Revolutionary Government since Commander President Hugo Chávez came to power.”
The crisis
The deteriorating conditions of the standard of living in Venezuela are, in any way, known to the whole world. The once richest country on the continent today shows alarming rates of shortages in basic items, daily devaluation of the currency and superinflation. It is known to be the country with the highest inflation in the world.
In fact, according to the International Monetary Fund, the 2016 inflation rate in the Caribbean country was around 400% and a catastrophic 2017 is projected with almost 2000% inflation, which represents a dramatic deterioration in the standard of living of Venezuelans. . These would be more than compelling reasons to promote the massive emigration that the continent is witnessing today, whose main focuses are Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Panama.
In the latter country, it is worth mentioning, there was recently a demonstration against the massive Venezuelan and Colombian immigration, by citizen sectors that consider competition with local professionals unfair. Many called the manifestation xenophobic, especially in the face of the Panamanian slogan of being “a melting pot”, and that in the population of this Central American country, only one in ten inhabitants is of Panamanian nationality, that is, a large majority of immigrants.
“Argentina is a country of immigrants and Venezuelans are welcome,” confirmed Mingotti. “Most of them are trained professionals and contribute a contingent of work that does the nation good.”
However, the consequences of this massive displacement, the most important in recent years in South America, remains to be seen.