home→Miscellaneous→ Methods of obtaining information in investigative journalism. Collection of external information Methods for selecting information for a journalistic work

Methods of obtaining information in investigative journalism. Collection of external information Methods for selecting information for a journalistic work

Observation as a method of collecting information and its types: open and hidden, included and not included. External study and vision from the inside with the method of observation. The study of documents and sources as a method of collecting information. Letters from readers as a source of information and work with them in newspaper editorial offices. Interview as a method of collecting information. Types of interview. Interview. Interview Rules

(Because it has already been established that journalism is, first of all, the collection of information. Only on the basis of the collected external information is it possible to produce internal information, that is, to create your own concept of events. In the vast majority of cases, journalism is engaged in searching for news in information sources and publishing ( i.e. reporting to the public) messages about them.This section is devoted to methods of collecting external information.

All his life, especially at the beginning of his career, a journalist has to play the role of a reporter - an honorable role in the field of mass information activities. "Journalist's feet feed" - not without reason there is such a professional saying. Of course, in this case we are talking about the collection of external information, the accumulation of facts, and not about the development of internal information, the content of which is to generalize and explain the facts.

It is hardly fair, however, to assert. That a journalist, having reached the status of an essayist, columnist or feuilletonist, is freed from the difficult profession of collecting information and proceeds only to generalizing it, receiving it in finished form from other sources. The experience of leading journalists, for example, the same A. Agranovsky, and also K. Simonov, S. Aleksievich and many others, indicates that a journalist never stops collecting information; can only be changed individual approaches depending on personal tasks, genre, nature of the material.

The work of a journalist can be compared to an iceberg. Only 1/9 of it looks out above the surface of the ocean. This is a part of the mass information activity that is visible to the recipients - a written or oral text. But 8/9 of the mass of the ice mountain is hidden under water. This is a huge preparatory work of a journalist to collect information, and forms the basis of the material. As a rule, weak journalistic works are obtained not as a result of a poor ability to work with a word, to verbally process already collected material, but as a result of a superficial understanding of the problem itself, which is chosen as the subject of an article or essay, insufficient activity in collecting information, the formation of a situation of information insufficiency , immediately affects the quality of the final result of journalistic work - the test.

A professional journalist is in no hurry to complete the process of collecting information, realizing that this is a crucial part of his work. For example, Anatoly Agranovsky, in a letter to his colleague V.K. Chetkar'ov dated July 1, 1980, said: "I have been preparing some articles for half a year, and I have been collecting one (about the ophthalmologist Fedorov)" for five years. But this does not mean at all that the journalist in this time is not busy. Other articles are being written, but the "cherished" one is hatching.

The need to accumulate a large amount of information, various kinds of data and points of view on the problem as the basis of mass information activity concerns the strategic genres of journalism, in particular, the basis of artistic and journalistic creativity - an essay. “Good things,” testifies the outstanding publicist Yuri Chernichenko, “unfortunately, they are done slowly, especially if it is done by a recognized master who is responsible for everything in which his name stands. Essay by F. Abramov and A. Chistyakov in the eighth number" Moscow" for 1978 - called "Niva alive and dead" - was made for nine years. So, in any case, it follows from the very essay ". It is clear that the author's term "made" should be understood not at the time of writing the text, but at the time of collecting material for the essay.

Taking into account efficiency as a weighty principle of information journalism, it is worth considering the principle proclaimed by Y. Chernichenko's essay: "It is done slowly - it lives long." As an example, he was ruled by the work of the outstanding prose writer, the master of "village prose" Fyodor Abramov (1920-1983). “For me, for example,” Yu. Chernichenko wrote, “Abramovsky’s essay“ Around and around “is still alive. Pryaslinykh". Here we are talking about the artistic and journalistic story "Around the bush" (1963), which was devoted to the problems of the Russian northern village, and the following novelistic work by F. Abramov: the Pryaslina trilogy, which consisted of the novels "Brothers and Sisters" (1958), "Two Winters and Three Summers" (1968), "Crossroads" (1971) and was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1975, and the novel "House" (1978) was attached to it. In this case, Yu. Chernichenko drew attention to the fact that the writer first mastered the topic as an essayist, publicist, and only then as an artist.

A classic example in Ukrainian culture: Afanasy Mirny first wrote the travel essay "From Poltava to Gadyach" (1872, published in 1874 in the journal "Pravda"), and then the creation of the novel "Do oxen roar when the manger full?" (1872-1875, co-authored with Ivan Bilyk, published 1880).

The given historical examples testify to the close connection between journalism and fiction, between which creative energy constantly flows. Literature and journalism are like communicating vessels: the level of one type of creativity immediately affects the second. And therefore, not only for journalism, but even for fiction, the problem of collecting information, the study of life, is being updated. Recall that the overall success of a journalistic and literary work depends on this stage.

There are only three methods for collecting external information:

observation,

Study of documents and sources,

Interview.

I. Observation- a passive method of collecting information. Its essence lies in the fact that, looking, notice someone or something, pay attention to someone.

Every journalist should be a vigilant, detail-oriented observer. In many cases, observations First stage the preparation of the material is an impetus, then gives rise to an extensive idea of an article or essay, leads to a journalistic investigation. But, as a rule, there are always elements in significant journalistic material, the source of which is the method of observation. This is all that the journalist saw with his own eyes: portraits, interiors, landscapes and the like. Consequently, observation, playing a seemingly secondary role in the collection of information, occupies a significant place in journalistic creativity, available in every extensive material.

A journalist is a daily, eternal Observer. He will never pass by an interesting event, which he witnessed involuntarily, by chance. He never misses an opportunity to meet an interesting person. He observes on the way to work and on the way home, on weekdays, on holidays and on days off. He collects everything he observes into the treasury of his journalistic experience, if not for immediate, then for future use.

Journalism knows such types of observations as open and hidden, included and not included. Their essence lies in the fact that a journalist (and often writers also resort to this) becomes for a while a member of a team, organization, institution, institution in order to perfectly, closely, at close range to study their activities, people's moods, working conditions , mechanisms for the implementation of financial or barter transactions. Open observation assumes that others are aware of what they are being studied, while covert observation implies the absence of such awareness. Covert surveillance gives the author of the future journalistic work more opportunities to get acquainted with the actual state of affairs, guarantees an impartial attitude towards him from the members of the team. Participant observation provides for the admission of a journalist to a full-time position and the fulfillment by him of certain official duties. What is not included makes it possible to study the situation from the outside, but provides a wider acquaintance of the journalist with the object of study, the opportunity to visit different structural divisions of a large company or institution.

Each type of observation has its own advantages in certain conditions. To study the work of a large enterprise or educational institution, open non-participant observation will be more convenient, which will enable the journalist to draw up a stereoscopic picture of the institution's activities. If we are talking about studying the hidden mechanisms of the movement of goods or capital, finding out what is secret and hidden by the institution, it is best to use the method of covert, participant observation.

The participant observation method (other names: "mask method", "dressing method", "professional change method") was widely used by Soviet journalism. The author of the future essay in the direction of the editors or the Union of Writers (Journalists) went on a creative business trip to the enterprise to study the working class and write essays about the Heroes of the Socialist

Labor. Often the initiative for such actions came from regional committees. In the late 1970s, a collective collection of essays "Morning Meetings" (1976), documentary novels by Boris Silaev "Circle of Light" (1976) and Radiy Polonsky's "Wings of My City" (1977) appeared only in Kharkov. The frank ideological assignment of the work of writers in the role of journalists in this and in many other cases compromised the method of participant observation. It seemed to some authors that the method of playing and "masking" was almost artificially invented to serve the dubious ideological premises of power. But this is far from true.

The mask method arose spontaneously, in the depths of the journalistic craft. As the journalist and scientist Lyudmila Vasilyeva, who devoted many interesting sides of her book “Making News!” to this method, points out, the pioneer of the mask method in Russian journalism was the legendary Vladimir Gilyarovsky. This method was revived by Mikhail Koltsov in the 1930s, and in the 1960s by Economic Newspaper reporter Anatoly Gudimov, who wrote a whole book of essays The Secret of a Foreign Profession. Seven Days in a Taxi. Face to Face (1965). Lyudmila Vasilyeva herself included her essays from the 1990s and early 2000s in the appendices to the named book, originally published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper (Far Eastern Representative Office). Information for them was collected by the method of mask, participant observation.

Most recently, Galina Sapozhnikova recalled (notably, also with the aim of covering a journalistic investigation) that the German journalist Günther Wallraf used the participant observation method in the mid-1970s, pretended to be a Turkish guest worker, and in a series of essays spoke about all the "beauties" of emigrant life, poking the nose of the Germans in their own xenophobia.

Therefore, it is impossible to associate this method with totalitarian manipulative journalism, it is immanent for journalistic creativity in general, it serves to search for the truth, to reveal the truth.

However, a young journalist should keep in mind the following: today, when journalism is guided not by party, but by universal morality, but by organizations mass media, enterprises, institutions belong to various private owners, and "covert surveillance" turned out to be outside the ethical norms of journalism. In a textbook on journalistic ethics (and this is a mandatory course, without knowledge of which it is impossible to enter the profession today), the future specialist will read that the ethical norm today is "to report one's belonging to a certain mass media." According to the codes of ethics of the leading information corporations, journalists are prohibited from "hiding their names when they introduce themselves", "recording conversations on a dictaphone without the permission of the interlocutor", "intentionally misleading the interlocutor". Unconditional preference is given to honest methods of collecting information. "Covert surveillance", of course, does not apply to those, it provides for deliberate deception, and is not compatible with the ethical standards of modern journalism.

Our universities teach academic discipline titled "Journalistic Investigation". There are already a number of textbooks under this title. But this is a discipline, so to speak, "for growth", for the future, to ensure the comprehensiveness of the academic training of a journalist. In fact, no teacher will send a student to practice to do a real journalistic investigation. This is an unjustified risk. To become a journalistic investigation, the author must grow up, make an independent decision about working in this genre. You should not start your way to journalism from it, just as in a heavyweight competition you should not start lifting more weight without a warm-up, preliminary preparation.

If you still had to do a journalistic investigation, consider some safety rules:

1) try to learn a new profession as quickly and better as possible and perform your duties flawlessly;

2) do not put a lot of questions, everything you need to be able to see, not hear;

3) take your time: often what you try to find out with risk today is quite easy to find tomorrow,

4) do not try to learn more than you should; your awareness in any case has its limits, which you cannot step over without changing your position in the institution;

5) do not strive to be especially "interesting": try to reduce friendly conversations to current problems, plans, incidents from life, etc. of your interlocutors, and not your own;

6) does not think at leisure about a future publication until the end of the collection of information: there will still be enough time to look at the big picture through the eyes of a journalist.

In addition to security rules for collecting information, there are such rules for creating text. So, how to tell about what you saw in order to avoid suspicion? Follow these guidelines:

1) avoid describing those details, strokes and trifles that have a pronounced individual character, as well as exact numbers, replacing them with approximate ones;

2) change, if possible, those details that, without being of fundamental importance, can point specifically to you

3) avoid even the approximate similarity of the construction of a phrase in your speech and on paper, not to mention the use of expressions, turns, phrases, etc., which are often used by you in daily conversations;

4) your pseudonym should not contain any biographical indications, which are understood as the place or month of birth, mother's maiden name, etc., all the more so not to overlap in any way with the real name;

5) and, of course, the circle of people who know about your task should be reduced to a minimum, regardless of the degree of trust and kinship (the latter is especially important - do not create unnecessary anxiety for your relatives and friends).

It is quite obvious that it is almost impossible to build a journalistic work only on observation. Most often, it is adjacent to other ways of collecting information, among which the second place is occupied by the study of documents and sources.

2nd century Study of documents and sources- an important stage in the work of a journalist on difficult, reporter, but analytical materials. As you know, one of the most important features of journalism as a mass information activity is documentary. If observations (as well as interviews) provide the journalist with subjective knowledge, then documents, on the contrary, provide accurate, objective information. Except, of course, for those cases when it is pseudo-documentation, that is, specially, at the organizational level, created for disinformation.

A document today is understood as any material carrier created by a person to fix social information in any way in order to transmit it in space and time.

Material carriers of information today are paper, tape, film, photography, electronic storage media and the like. From this point of view, sources are varieties of documents, namely: written texts, handwritten or printed, audio and video recordings of conversations and events, photographs, diskettes with digital, textual materials, on the basis of which journalistic (as well as scientific) works are created. S. G. Korkonosenko in his textbook "Fundamentals of Journalism" referred to the statements of the former staff correspondent of "Komsomolskaya Pravda", who, dwelling on the collection of information, wrote: "Books of account and other documents are interesting ... up to the telephone log."

First of all, it should be said that, working within a certain topic, a journalist must study it all the time, deepen his knowledge in a certain area of life, get acquainted with the latest literature and periodicals, visit libraries, know the rules of bibliographic search, refer to the necessary sources in case need. Without working with a book, a magazine, a newspaper, a modern journalist is inconceivable. Books, newspapers, magazines are the most important sources of operational and fundamental information. First of all, a media employee should work with them.

The main basis for a journalist's work with documents and sources is impartiality. He should not look for confirmation of a previously invented concept in them, but, on the contrary, build a concept on documented facts. There are cases when, after the completion of the formation of a concept, a new fact is discovered that destroys this concept; then the new inconvenient fact is not subject to rejection, but the concept itself is already ready for review and clarification.

In a special study, the following rules for working with documents are formulated:

Make sure that

the document was created by a competent (by official position) or a person specially authorized for this purpose;

the environment in which the document was created did not affect its content;

it does not distort the names of officials; the content of the document corresponds to the prints of the seal and the corner stamp;

the document is signed by a person authorized for this purpose.

The skill of a journalist is measured, among other factors, by how deeply he can comprehend the spring base of the future work, use it, give the necessary references to documents in the text itself, which will become a weighty argument and convince the reader of the correct position of the author.

Finally, there are areas of journalism where knowledge of documents and sources is mandatory and dominates the material. Such are, for example, speeches on historical topics, crime chronicles, etc.

When starting work on any material for OMI, a journalist must ask if there are any documents and sources on this topic. In many cases, acquaintance with them is the initial stage of understanding the topic. This happens when it comes to the study of a certain industrial facility, construction, consideration of a complaint.

An important source of topics and problems for a journalist is letters from readers. The traditional view is that modern world there was a tangible impoverishment of epistolary creativity in general. This form of individual, interpersonal communication, which for a long time of history remained the only means of communication between people in space, they say, today has been supplanted by the telephone, electronic means of communication. In the "good old days" Nikolai Gogol wrote to Alexander Pushkin at the other end of St. Petersburg: "If you knew how sorry I was that I found your note on my desk instead of you. If only I had returned a minute earlier, and I would have seen you back into yourself." Now such a letter is simply impossible - all this person will say to another on the phone, and a friend will not pay a visit without making sure with the help of the same phone, the owner of the house. Once Pavel Zagrebelny said: "The nineteenth century - in letters, like the twentieth - in telephones." So, there are objective reasons for reducing the number of letters in the editorial office.

Despite this, periodicals continue to receive letters. The editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, V. N. Sungorkin, noted in a special interview: "We have a large mail. We have 30,000 letters every week, up to a hundred thousand monthly, and this is not counting the reviews on publications on our website on the Internet." Lyudmila Vasilyeva herself, from the preface to the book of which the above statement is taken, also notes the great importance of the editorial epistolary: "But letters," she exclaims, "are a fascinating informational Klondike!" . Further, however, she reduces all the variety of letters to a friend of their genre: "a cry for help." And he even offers a summary: "If a letter was written to the editor, it means that the author has been 'gotten'."

It is unlikely that the situation with letters in modern journalism can be so simply explained. Thirty thousand letters every week cannot be so monotonous. It seems that the source of the sheets, with good reasons for their removal from the information field, is elsewhere. In the modern world, there is an alienation of man from his essence. Modern man is lonely and often confused in front of the world of the absurd. She is looking for warmth and complicity, often just like-minded people, those who think and feel the way she does, and who is just as lonely as she is. This is the main reason why editorial mail never runs out. In the youth newspaper "Artmozaika" (Kharkiv), with a weekly circulation of 334,000 copies, the heading "eternal pen" has persisted for many years. Each issue of the newspaper contains two pages of letters. Their problems are diverse, such that they cannot be generalized. But here are the motives - to express oneself, to talk about one's life experience and its lessons, to entrust paper things that you cannot tell publicly orally - this is clearly monitored. Therefore, it is logical to assume that psychological reasons underlie epistolary creativity, and editorial mail will always exist. So, you should be able to work with it.

Through letters to the editor important information about social contradictions, the brewing of conflict situations, the movement of public opinion in one direction or another. People turn to the newspaper, as a rule, in difficult cases of their lives, looking for support, social justice, protection from the arbitrariness of officials. In Soviet times, the editorial offices of almost all (including regional) newspapers had letter departments, whose duties were only to work with mail, systematize and summarize epistolary information, check complaints, prepare letters or excerpts from them for publication. Newspapers had headings "Although the letter was not published," where the editors informed readers about the measures taken on citizens' appeals and about the actions of government bodies in resolving the problems posed in the letters.

A young journalist should be aware that letters from readers can only serve as a source of preliminary information that still requires careful verification. Work with letters is based on the following principles:

1. Careful accounting of all letters, giving each one his own number or code, grouping letters by topic or problem.

2. When determining the decision to publish, the authorship of the letter needs to be verified. The editorial staff must contact the author of the letter and personally obtain confirmation of his authorship from him. If such confirmation cannot be achieved, the letter is considered anonymous and is not considered. Such a check is especially necessary in cases when it comes to compromising facts, the disclosure of which can somehow affect the fate of people.

3. If you want to publish a letter, you need to check the facts given in it. This is also the responsibility of the editorial staff. To do this, the letters should ask about the sources of his information and the journalist himself should go this way, compare different points of view on an event or phenomenon, etc.

In many editorial offices of older newspapers, there is a tradition that all mail arriving at the general address of the publication is first read by the editor-in-chief, he also imposes the necessary resolutions and passes letters to departments for further use or action.

Letters serve as a channel for feedback between the editorial board and readers, give journalists a feel for the pulse of public opinion, and at the same time the effectiveness of their own work.

Due to the impoverishment of a significant part of the population of Ukraine, which was the result of the economic crisis throughout the post-Soviet space, the flow of letters to newspaper editorial offices has significantly decreased. But those editions did the right thing, they did not want to lose ties with the audience. They invited readers to call the editorial office, published a phone number and assigned a special employee to receive such messages.

As a result, the connection "newspaper - reader - newspaper" was not completely destroyed, the publication retained an important opportunity to conduct a dialogue with readers, to know about their assessment of their own work. There was an even more important consequence from this communication channel: nothing increases the prestige of the publication and its circulation , as the effectiveness of publications, effective assistance to specific citizens in solving their specific problems related to various areas of life: everyday life, utilities, payment of wage arrears and pensions, and the like.

Many years of journalistic experience suggests that the work of establishing a dialogue with readers (in writing, by telephone) should be included in the circle of daily concerns of each editorial office, and its activity is a measure of the authority of the publication, its popularity.

III. Interview. This is the main method of collecting information in journalism, the essence of which is to receive news and messages through oral communication of the subject (journalist) with the subject newsmaker (politician, scientist, artist or just an interesting interlocutor). It is believed that this method provides 80 to 90 percent of the information a journalist needs. It is clear that the interview method should be distinguished from the journalistic genre of the same name, the essence of which lies in the dramatic (dialogical) construction of the material in the form: question - answer. The interview genre does not play such a significant role in journalism as the method, although its share in the pages of modern newspapers is growing.

With a certain metaphor, we can say that the work of a journalist is an eternal interview, and the journalist himself must be a good communicator. His activity consists of talking to people and describing what he hears. Moreover, the problems of creativity and skill of a journalist include not only the direct creation of a text, but (and above all) the art of collecting material for it. Journalism is the art of communication, and with the development of audiovisual media, also the art of public communication in front of a microphone or television camera.

Modern journalism by type of communication knows the following types of interviews:

Job interview. It is considered such that it provides especially fruitful opportunities for a journalist. Having met the object at his workplace, he can not only set the interviews scheduled for interview, but also connect other methods of collecting information: observation and study of documents and sources, and in the future material describe the atmosphere of the workplace, the atmosphere of the institution, give some eloquent details that characterize interlocutor, in addition, during the conversation, the journalist may require the object to document certain facts about which oral information was heard. A journalist should always seek to conduct an interview in conditions convenient for himself, and such are conversations at the workplaces of objects.

Interview at the object's home. Especially advantageous when a journalist meets with a private person. Then not the working environment in the position, but the life, home environment can play a leading role and give the same benefits as meeting with an employee at his workplace, and guarantee the use of additional methods of observation and study of documents and sources.

A hallmark of a democratic society is the holding of open house days at the homes of significant politicians. Several such days were held in 2005 immediately after the Orange Revolution to demonstrate to journalists the openness and transparency of the new government.

Editorial interview. It should be agreed as a last resort, when the object refuses everything else. You receive an interlocutor at your workplace, and it is no longer you who are watching him, but he is watching you. You are deprived of the opportunity to observe, to demand documentary confirmation of his words, you can only ask and write down the answers.

Telephone interview. It should be resorted to in order to achieve special efficiency, to check individual details in the information already existing in the editorial office. A full-fledged telephone interview is impossible, but for reference, clarification of certain facts, consultation on certain issues, it can be productively used. A journalist achieves a greater effect when he calls a familiar official or figure whom he has already met before. Then it is easier, having reminded about yourself and explaining the difficult circumstances that cause you to use the phone, and not ask for a personal meeting, to achieve the desired result - to obtain the necessary information.

However, in modern life, among the new generation of journalists, the telephone, including the mobile one, is becoming the subject of ever-increasing consumption. Full-fledged telephone interviews have been appearing in the press for a long time, as well as on the radio or in TV programs, in order to achieve maximum efficiency, correspondents' messages broadcast from phones connected to the studio, news makers' testimonies, comments of independent experts and the like are heard.

Interviews in inter-situations. Let's explain the proposed time frame. The word "Inter" (inter) in Latin means "between, between" and is used as a prefix in compound words to indicate an intermediate situation, being between something. In today's stressful world, where the daily schedule of famous people is scheduled not by hours, but by minutes, a journalist is often denied an interview, not because they initially do not want to meet with a press representative, but because they actually do not have free time for this. Then the journalist offers to meet in some inter-situation: at lunch or dinner in a restaurant, at a hairdresser, right on the street and take the person home on foot, combining a walk with a conversation.

It is hard to imagine a Ukrainian journalist taking an interview in a restaurant, but in the West this is a common method of verbal collection of information, which means that we would like our future journalists to know about it too. In the major newspapers of the West, interviews in restaurants are paid for by the editors, as fresh, competitive information is so highly valued there, and it raises the prestige of the publication.

Moreover, interviews in inter-situations are increasingly becoming part of the practice of a modern Ukrainian journalist. So, on June 16, 2000, the newspaper "Young Ukraine" published an interview with journalist Maya Orel with the famous TV presenter Olga Gerasimyuk under the title "A woman who wins in a man's world." This piece of journalism is a typical example of an interview in an inter-situation. “Olga Gerasimyuk suggested that I meet in a hairdressing salon,” Maya Orel begins to acquaint readers with the situation of the conversation. “Kuafer will conjure over her hair, and I will interview her.”

The conversation conducted in such an environment turned out to be full-fledged in terms of information, even deep in its own way, in no way inferior in content to highly effective types of interviews, such as, for example, interviews at the workplace. And the very exoticism of the situation, which Maya Orel emphasized from time to time, the presence of a silent, but with a mysterious smile, kuafer, representing the male world in the problem conceived for the conversation (“gender features of achieving success”), adds a special freshness and charm to the interview, works to embody the main idea of a journalistic work.

The interview is off the record. Often used when a journalist is dealing with criminogenic circles. Subject doesn't mind being told by a journalist, but is afraid that the recorded material could be used against him in some way. Therefore, he agrees to an interview, but without recording. Such an interview should be recorded immediately after the meeting, while the impressions are fresh, or immediately create material in another genre that you are planning. The main thing is that the information obtained from the off-record interview can still be used in future material.

The interview is not for recording or use. You should agree to it as a last resort, since you cannot use the information obtained in this way in your journalistic work. But you can use it for an inner purpose. There are two aspects of its possible use:

a) to understand the issue yourself, what worries you, to understand the operation of hidden mechanisms;

b) go to other sources of information that you can use legally, publicly, with links to them.

This type of interview should be agreed when, in the process of journalistic investigation, open, legitimate ways of searching for information have been exhausted. The main rule of a journalist's behavior in the conditions of this interview is strict compliance with all the requirements of the object. It should be clearly understood that they agreed to give him dangerous information, on the publication of which the fate of people depends.

Interview includes the following components:

General preparation. The entire professional life of a journalist continues and consists in creating one's own personality, acquiring the general erudition necessary for communicating with people of a high intellectual level, mastering the basic rules of the art of communication and the technology of "solving languages"

specific training. It consists in studying the question of a complex of problems that you want to find out through an interview. It provides for the study of special literature, new approaches and views on the problem, familiarization with possible documents and sources, the face of the object; in short - in the acquisition of special knowledge, which will then be used by you directly in this interview.

Knowledge of the subject of the upcoming conversation and a preliminary orientation in the problem is not only a prerequisite, but also a guarantee of the successful work of a journalist. In modern conditions on the labor market and the skill of journalists, the leader is captured by the one who shows the greatest competence in his field, a deep understanding of phenomena in a conversation with the interviewee. In this case, the journalist himself becomes an interesting interlocutor for the object, it is interesting for him to communicate with him, he begins to treat him as his colleague who works in journalism and can bring a lot of benefit to the common cause with his publications.

Let's do a mental experiment. A new head has been appointed to the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is clear that even after the press conference (it can be considered as a type of collective interview) there are many media workers seeking to publish exclusive materials about the new boss.

The general is a Democrat in outlook, respects the press. He receives the first journalist... But disappointed by the conversation with him, she did not go beyond the circle of general topics and boiled down to questions: "What would you like to tell our readers? What would you wish to the readers of our newspaper?" Having spent 2 hours of working time, the next day the general agreed with less willingness to meet with another correspondent. He also turned out to be incompetent in the problems of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the region, and for him the story had to be started from scratch, for a long time to bring him up to date. The boss concluded that journalists only interfere with his work and fulfill his immediate official duties.

Quite by accident, the editor of the most authoritative publication in the city managed to persuade the general to accept another correspondent for his newspaper. It was a completely different meeting. The journalist immediately showed competence in the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, rejected a whole layer of the least important issues, asked questions only about the most important: about the work of the Department for Combating Organized Crime, corruption within the police apparatus, which, in fact, led to a change in the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the region. The journalist asked how the investigation of the "high-profile" cases, which the newspapers wrote about earlier, was progressing; how human rights are protected during the investigation.

The general immediately felt the high professional level of this journalist, singled him out among others, willingly talked with him for 3:00, ordered the adjutant to always connect this correspondent with him in case of telephone calls, and when he needed to give exclusive information to the press personally, he invited this particular author as the most competent and knowledgeable in the field.

Undoubtedly, the purpose of the interview is to "unwind", to talk the interlocutor, and not to talk too much. But the successful fulfillment of this task is possible only if the interlocutors are adequate. It is difficult and not easy to enter the circle of new problems every time, but professional activity a journalist is impossible without this stage of his work. Today, officials are increasingly asking journalists what they want to talk about, and, having heard the general answer: "Well, there ... about novelties in your industry," they categorically refuse to meet with such authors.

Therefore, specific training is becoming increasingly important when applying the interview method in mass information activities.

Psychological preparation. It consists in your internal disposition for a conversation, a convenient time and place intended for it, the choice of clothes and the creation of a certain image of a journalist, should provide for the object Better conditions for self-disclosure. A journalist must be a professional communicator, have the necessary knowledge and skills in this area.

It should be understood from the very beginning that basically people are internally arranged extremely chaotically. To successfully obtain the information you need from them, you must mobilize all your external and internal resources. There are no trifles here, starting from the details of clothing and ending with the timbre of your voice chosen by you, the varieties of which, of course, should also be possessed.

When going to the factory to talk to the workers, you should dress like a worker. Going to an interview with the director of the bank, you must have the appropriate appearance so that you are not put out without a conversation from the doorway, without looking at your journalistic ID.

A journalist should always be attuned to flexibility and behavior, and also have sensory experience in order to understand for himself which behavior model gives the most tangible result in communication. When preparing for an interview, you should decide on a behavior model, choose one as the main one, but be sure to have two or three more fallback options in case the first model does not work. When conducting an interview, you should quickly tune in to the subject's communication wave and respond flexibly to his behavior, looking for the greatest openness.

A journalist is both an actor and director, and each of his interviews is a small one-act performance that he plays alone with the object.

In the very general view interview rules can be formulated as follows:

First of all, you should know what you want to know about; highlight for yourself the main thing or a group of main issues, implement a clear set of goals and steadily move towards it in the process of conversation.

The journalist must proceed from the idea of the self-sufficient value of his profession. He is an information hunter. He is after her. She, like a game, hides from him. A journalist should be aware that information may be hidden from him intentionally, or they may simply not understand the content of the questions posed; finally, some objects may simply not be sufficiently informed themselves to fully explain the situation or problem. Therefore, a deep awareness of one's tasks, finding out for oneself what he should learn about, is a prerequisite for mass information activity.

Be meticulous in your use of language. Know that only it will provide you with the result that you want to achieve. Remember the rule: if you are accurate in the wording of questions, then you will receive accurate information.

The brothers comment on the issue of your future material should only be the first on the competence of a person in the industry. Imagine a conference attended by 200 scientists. A journalist who writes an article or even gives an informational message about it should apply for an interview not to the young graduate students present at it, not to associate professors or professors, but to Academician Kh., acted as the organizer of the conference, said at the plenary session at its opening program report. Only such a commentary by the first person at this event will be the most productive from the information side, it will deeply reveal the event, and arouse the interest of readers.

Make it a rule to use the slogan that has come down to us from the ancient Romans: "Audiator et altera pars!" ("Listen to the other side too!"). Its use is mandatory in situations of journalistic investigation, the study of a conflict situation in which the parties will accuse each other before the journalist and try to win him over to their side. No matter how convincing the position of the first side may seem to you at first glance, make it a rule to study the arguments of your opponents. Only such a comprehensive study can be considered sufficient for drawing up one's own concept of events.

Don't be ashamed of your ignorance. It is better to be a layman in a conversation and sincerely admit to the object that you do not understand certain problems than to be a layman in a public speech, to make unfortunate inaccuracies, for which both the journalist and the publication itself will be ashamed later.

Having prepared for an interview in the library, having read the sources available on a given problem, having exhausted Internet resources, the journalist must, however, make the object understand his level of competence. It should be understood that the higher the level of competence of a media worker, the more confidence he inspires in the interviewed subject, gives rise to a desire to cover the problem deeply and comprehensively. It is completely forbidden to go to an interview without prior preparation, without having studied the problems in detail. It is forbidden during the interview to use verbal formulas like: "Of course, I don't understand anything about this, but you tell me..."

However, having met with little-known or incomprehensible material, one should not be ashamed of one's ignorance or misunderstanding of it, but consistently and persistently seek clarifications and comments.

Argue with the object, be an actor, make him lay out more and more arguments in your favor.

If the object avoids answering a question that seems significant to you, repeat them several times in a different formulation and it will definitely open up somewhere. If sensational data is given, be sure to ask: "How do you know this?" So you will go to new sources of information and be able to check the testimony of the object.

Put only one question at a time, following the rules: one question - one answer. When you pose several questions at once, the subject begins to answer the last one and, finishing the answer, no longer remembers other questions, experiences psychological discomfort from the need to spend energy on recalling them. All questions, except for the last one, still have to be repeated again. So take your time.

Use the same words, expressions and intonation as your subject of the interview. By this you will gain his confidence and testify to him that you understand him well. On the other hand, it will be easier for him to talk to you. Do not use obscure terms, try to minimize the use of foreign words. Speak simply, in short sentences. The implementation of this rule consists in observing the important psychological basis of joining the interlocutor during a conversation, entering into his model of the world.

If you are collecting material for an article or essay, try to use other methods of collecting information, combine an interview with a reportage, take an interview at the scene, walk along it with the object, asking to show the location of the objects and characters of the event. This will make it possible to get not just a sum of facts, but to build a plot.

Listen silently, do not interrupt the interlocutor. Remember: you met to listen, not to talk too much. People, as a rule, do not even know how much they know, you have to lead them along the path of their memory. Approach the interlocutor like a jug full of information and try to empty it.

Don't be afraid to ask tough questions. There are no questions that confuse, there are only answers that confuse. Re-read your notes, quickly navigate the gaps that remain, and seek re-interviews if necessary.

At the end of the interview, be sure to ask what interesting things the interlocutor could tell readers outside the topic outlined by your questions. Often people have a lot of stories worthy of newspaper publication. So you will find more than one topic for future creativity.

Treat with dignity, feel like an official representative of your OMI. Make it a rule not only to thank for the interview, but also to bring the object a newspaper with material that appeared with his participation or help. People appreciate a good attitude towards them, will remember you and will continue to willingly agree to conversations in the future.

The text written as a result of the interview should be shown to the object before publication, asked to read it carefully, correct possible errors in numbers, names, facts, if any. Ask the object to approve your material. In modern editions, the calls are made by signing the object on the back of each sheet of the text of the interview.

However, there are differences in the views on this rule between domestic and foreign sources. A. S. Moskalenko referred the following situation to “acts restricting the right of citizens to freedom of expression”: “if a journalist, contrary to the request of the author of the material or the person in which he took the interview, does not agree with it the final text prepared for publication, or text significant changes without consent and publishes it "Consequently, even in domestic journalism, this rule does not apply categorically, but allows selectivity in application. It is applied at the request of the object.

Western methods generally do not require the journalist to agree with the object of the text of his material. "The task of the interview is to get more information than the interlocutor wants to provide," says the guide "Journalist's Guide", compiled according to the French method of training workers for the media. - It is better to avoid agreeing on the text of the interview with the one who gave it. agreement with its main message and feed key."

How to understand this contradiction? Its origins are in the different status of journalism at home and in the democratic countries of the West. Our legislation in the information sphere is so imperfect that a journalist always faces the threat of a lawsuit even in the case of an innocent mistake, not to mention sharp critical material directed against a government or institution. In this case, of course, it is better to coordinate the publication with the source of information in advance. Needless to say, in this case, all critical assessments will be practically eliminated and there will not even be room for constructive proposals. After all, the authority of a newspaper directly depends on how consistently it is in opposition to the authorities, how much it criticizes the inaction or wrong actions of officials or state structures. Western journalism has already gone through a difficult path of struggle for freedom of speech, has won the right under the conditions of responsibility to recklessly criticize the authorities and officials, up to and including presidents. Therefore, in Western methods there are requirements that in our conditions seem unconstructive. In fact, they are not without meaning, and our journalism will eventually come closer to their introduction into practice.

Modern technology puts the journalist before the choice of recording the interview in a notebook or recording it on a dictaphone. Here it is impossible to give any unequivocal recommendations, all the more so to keep a Ukrainian journalist from the temptation to use a technical tool. But the following should be kept in mind:

Firstly, transcribing an interview recorded on a dictaphone takes much more time than one recorded in a notebook. The voice recorder provides only a consistent playback of the conversation, while the notes in the notebook are covered by vision at the same time, this creates good opportunities for compositional rearrangements, grouping material into headings;

Secondly, The recorder provides for repeated use of a tape recorder. As a rule, recorded interviews are erased shortly after the publication of a journalistic work. This makes it impossible to return to previously published material, reuse it. But every experienced journalist knows that not all of the information obtained from an interview is then used in a journalistic work. Looking through old recordings, you can find more than one topic for a new performance. Working with a voice recorder, every time a journalist starts from scratch and does not leave anything in his archive from his work.

In favor of the tape-recorded interview, it will be impossible for the subject to retract his words, even if he wants to do so afterwards; film edit for document in case of complaint of inaccurate publication.

The best option technical support an interview is a combination of notes in a notebook of the main theses and provisions with a recording of the full text of the conversation on a voice recorder. This will combine the advantages of each method and eliminate some of their disadvantages.

Let these considerations be taken into account by young journalists in their future professional activities.

St. Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics

Report on the theory and practice of public relations:

«Methods of collecting information in journalism

And PR -communications"

StudentsI course of the humanitarian faculty

Groups 6031

Lavrova Maria

Lecturer: Evseev A.Yu.

2004

In general, not only journalism and PR communications deal with obtaining, searching, collecting information, but also many other professions - a scientist, investigator, intelligence officer, psychologist, doctor, etc. In fact, any field of activity where the circumstance is of key importance - whether information about an object, process or phenomenon is accurate, faces the problem of how to obtain and evaluate this information, with a set of methods for implementing this task.

The basis of any journalistic work (text) is information, i.e. information about real processes and phenomena that took place. A judgment that is not based on information can lead to unpredictable consequences, up to complete rejection or the opposite of the expected reaction. Therefore, the search, structuring and correct assessment of information is a key step in the construction of any journalistic and PR material. The more confidence in the accuracy of the information received, the more likely the journalist or PR-man achieves his goal. The selection of facts requires a thorough study of heterogeneous information, their comparison and evaluation, structuring according to the degree of relevance, according to the degree of influence of social or other significance. At the same time, excessively redundant information, as well as its lack, should be avoided.

The sciences of the humanities, and journalism and PR are among them, are largely based on conjectural information that is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to interpret unambiguously or confirm. Therefore, both exact data and hypotheses that are in the nature of the most probable assumption take place here.

In journalism and PR, the methodological basis of the process of collecting and information creatively compiles the whole variety of methods of various disciplines. A journalist or PR worker in this context brings together such heterogeneous factors as his own experience, personal qualities inherent in him due to his personality, standard technologies of information activity and generally accepted principles and professional norms.

At the same time, the collection of information for a professional is not of a formal nature, but turns into an element of primary creative activity, which largely determines all subsequent stages of his work. The role of intuition, suggesting which fact should be found and recorded, how to get to this fact and where its use in the future will bring the maximum benefit, is no less important than the set of professional skills to obtain it.

The more accurately a journalist or PR worker imagines exactly what facts are necessary for his material, the more ready he is for the preliminary collection of information, the more effective this process is.

It is quite obvious that initial stage searching for information on a specific task is the primary and most complete preliminary acquaintance with the problem under the given conditions. Experienced journalists not only do not neglect the opportunity to understand the essence of the problem, to get acquainted with all its aspects before they start practical work - whether it is writing a short note or preparing a serious analytical material, but on the contrary, they seek every opportunity for this.

During the study of the literature, I found that the methods of collecting information are so diverse and invariant, so dependent on the context, that even an approximate, cursory description of them would take up a huge amount of text. For journalism and PR, there are certain professional features of the methodology, however, in a general sense, grouping them according to key features - although such a classification is to a certain extent conditional - they can be divided into three groups:

Communicative methods.

Non-communicative (documentary and physical).

Analytical.

Communicative Methods

Communicative methods of obtaining information include all types of interpersonal and technical communication that are available in the work of a journalist or PR-mena .. Of course, this is, first of all, a conversation, interview and survey.

To a certain extent, communication methods also include correspondence via postal information channels, and specific methods of computer communications, such as teleconferences, electronic correspondence, etc.

Conversation, as a rule, it is a preparatory stage before using other more accurate communication methods, necessary in order to understand the emotional background of the situation, to understand the characteristics of the opponent's personality, to understand the situation as a whole.

The main communicative means of obtaining information in practical journalism is interview(face-to-face or correspondence interview), as a result of which the journalist realizes certain goals of obtaining certain information. It is in turn divided into formalized and informal. Formalized interviewing is characterized by a sufficiently large amount of time or period between the collection of information and its publication. As a result of this, many cataclysms occur: the choice of words or phrases from the context, the installation of material, custom-made material. And informal interviewing is characterized by a lack of time between collection and publication. This method is typical for live broadcast, as a result of this option we get publicity, because this process is unpredictable and uncontrollable. As a rule, this method is peculiar to radio and television.

The polls also highlight focus groups - a method of collecting information that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of communication at any stage, from the emergence of an idea to a specific PR product. In practice, this method consists in conducting a collective interview in the form of a group discussion during which subjective information is collected from participants on the identification of problems.

Non-communicative methods (documentary and physical)

It is extremely important in the work of a journalist to use all available information arrays to obtain information. It should be noted here that familiarity with the printed and other press, primary documents related to the event (books, diaries, letters, notes, business correspondence, orders and orders, other kinds of documents, etc.) gives the journalist a huge amount of information, on which he can rely on in his work on the material. Others are very effective method are ways of obtaining information as a result of using various monitoring tools. However, observation (monitoring), as a non-communicative method, often provides invaluable information even without the use of special devices, since in this case the journalist himself can become an eyewitness to the event, observe the situation, etc. For PR, monitoring is an analysis of the media, the style of writing, the manner of presenting the material. It is important to present enough pictures of the work of the media, its scope of activity, the point of view of the editor-in-chief, who is behind the newspaper, i.e. its founders. It is also important to identify the media rating, as a result, we determine which target audience the information is intended for.

Technical means are also extremely diverse - their arsenal is constantly updated as technology develops. These include optical devices, devices for fixing audio-video information, various types of recorders, etc.

An experiment that simulates or reproduces certain events can also be of great benefit, but the degree of its applicability is not too high to dwell on it in more detail. Suffice it to say that due to the transience and uniqueness of some events, it is often possible to make them visible only with the help of an experiment-reconstruction. It is this principle that lies at the heart of the realty genre, which is an extremely popular genre of artistic journalism today ("Rescue Phone 911", "First City Clinic", etc.). In the program "Gorodok", in many newspapers, journalists use an experiment-drawing to get information about the reaction of a person in certain given conditions. For PR, this method is convenient because it minimizes costs and it is possible to learn about the reaction of the audience or the target audience.

Analytical Methods

First of all, the analytical methods of obtaining information characteristic of science are extremely effective in those circumstances in which, for various reasons, it is difficult or impossible to obtain comprehensive data by other methods that we have considered. A journalist has to deal with situations when an event has no eyewitnesses capable of restoring its circumstances, when an object or subject is of a specific nature and cannot be unambiguously determined, when there are too many conflicting opinions about the event. These are the majority of catastrophes, anomalous phenomena, events in the world of science, crimes, emergencies and historical events, for one reason or another, becoming socially significant and relevant. In these cases, obtaining information directly is unlikely, difficult due to various circumstances, and sometimes simply impossible. On the contrary, there are too many indirect, unconfirmed data, conjectures and conjectures. Analytical methods of science are extremely diverse, and it is rather difficult to list them all. Here is just a brief classification:

System analysis (that is, building a system with a certain relationship of elements, their hierarchy, determining the main functions, system-forming, system-destroying and system-neutral factors, etc.). Here we are talking primarily about the exact systematization of data according to various criteria (chronology, subject matter, significance, etc.)

Comparative analysis (comparative techniques), in which an event, phenomenon or object is compared with a similar one (suffice it to recall how television news “furnishes” various kinds of catastrophes and crises, talking about similar phenomena, drawing free or involuntary parallels).

Deductive and inductive methods, that is, the construction of judgments in the first case, from the general picture to a particular detail, in the second - on the contrary, from the particular to the more general.

Modeling (computer, logical, mathematical, etc.) in which some properties of the object are transferred to the model under study.

In PR, one can especially single out the analysis of documents, including with the help of the media and the Internet. For the convenience of studying, the following forms are used: clipping, monitoring, transcription of electronic media. To determine the quality of textual information, the method of content analysis is used - the translation of mass textual information into quantitative indicators, followed by statistical processing.

In any case, the choice of a specific method (methods) for obtaining information largely depends on the individual characteristics of a journalist or PR worker, his experience, intuition and professionalism.

Tags: Information gathering methods in journalism and PR communications Other finance, money, credit

1. Observation. It is based on personal knowledge of reality through its sensory perception. N. is a rather complex action, predetermined both by the characteristics of the observed object, and by the personal qualities, professional skills, and experience of the observer. Several types of journalistic observation:

1. Depending on the degree of direct contact of the observer with the observed object - direct (explicit contact) or indirect (indirect contact, using indirect data). 2. On a temporary basis, according to the amount of time spent on short-term and long-term ones. 3. On the basis of the declared or non-declared observer of his role - open and hidden. 4. According to the degree of participation of the observer in the event, included (the observer is introduced into the organization and sees everything that happens from the inside) and not included (study from outside).

2. Interview and conversation are the most common methods of collecting information. There are 3 types of contacts: written (resume, draft), oral (talking on the phone) and audiovisual (personal meeting, direct contact, exchange of business cards).

3. Development of documents. A document is most often a written evidence of a part-l. But several types of documents are distinguished for various reasons: 1. By the type of fixation of information (handwritten, printed, photo, cinema, and magnetic films, gramophone records, laser discs, etc.) d.). 2. By type of authorship - official and personal. 3. By proximity to the display object - initial and derivative. 4. Authenticity - originals and copies. 5. By purpose for printing - intentionally and unintentionally created.

Another typology of documents: state-administrative, production-administrative, social-political, scientific, normative-technical, reference-information, art, household documents: personal letters, notes, film and photography, diaries, etc.

When analyzing documents, it is necessary to: 1. Distinguish between descriptions of events and their interpretation (facts and opinions). 2. Determine what sources of information the compiler of the document used, whether it is primary or secondary. 3. Reveal the intentions that guided the compiler of the document, giving it life. 4. Compare, if possible, the content of the documents under investigation with the information received on the issue under investigation from other sources. 5. Use the chronological principle of considering facts.

Selection of received information. The significance of information is determined by the factual saturation, as well as the reliability of its content. Mistakes: 1. Reckless trust in documents in the publication of which someone has been very interested, trust in documents that do not have an exact authorship or imprint. 2. Usually such materials contain compromising information against certain institutions, individual figures.

4. Experiment or provocation. The observer creates a situation that did not exist before him, but an artificial situation, and only then studies it, applying the method of observation. That is, a way to identify the state of the object of reality by its reaction to an experimental factor (economic, legal, psychological, laboratory)

5. Criminological and investigative methods. Use of technical means.

None of the methods is exhaustive, it is necessary to combine them (the so-called "principle of complementarity")

When a journalist has already chosen a topic for a material and is preparing to create it, he almost immediately faces the problem of choosing the most reliable source of information. The most common methods of information gathering in the 21st century are observation, interviews and the study of documents. The most objective way is the latter, but rarely anyone resorts to it - it takes too much time, and speed and efficiency are now valued more than the degree of truthfulness and independence of opinion.

Interview

This method is built on the basis of a conversation and involves a fairly extensive training on the part of the journalist. In order to take a good interview, it is necessary to study as much as possible all the available information about the interviewee and his activities. It is much easier and more pleasant for people to communicate with an informed person. A prerequisite is also the preparation of questions or at least a plan of conversation. This will help not to forget anything important during the conversation and build it in the most logical way. Before the interview, it is worth studying materials from the press. During the conversation, it is worth paying attention to the remarks and the emotional coloring of the remarks, this will help to form the most correct impression of the interviewee's attitude to the conversation. Remember - a friendly attitude and awareness will help you make a quality interview with almost anyone.

Observation

Surveillance is both a popular and scandalous way of obtaining information. This is the most accessible method, since it does not require special skills - you just need to be a witness to the event, recording the impressions of what you see on a camera or on a voice recorder. But many go much further and simulate events (for example, breaking into a closed area by car and filming everything that happens on a video camera), or plunging into a different field of activity for a day, which threatens problems with the police due to violation of laws in this process. In general, observation does not require supernatural skills, it is enough just to reliably describe events.

Work with documents

The most objective way to collect information, it has its own subtleties. Before working with it, you need to make sure that the document is genuine, find out the name and date of the security. At the same time, it is the document that can become the very evidence and confirming factor, thanks to which many important issues are resolved, including in court. When working with it, you need to fix the title, date of the document, clearly indicate the quotes and the pages from which they are taken.

In addition to the main methods of collecting information in journalism, there are also sociological methods. These are questionnaires, text content analysis, journalistic experiment and other methods borrowed from sociology. Each of them is important and interesting in its own way, but can be applied only in a number of situations. As you can see, there are enough ways to collect information, but each of them must be applied using the knowledge base that you already have. If you “get into” the situation in the wrong way, then your material will be worthless, and this is not what you would like.