From what angles to analyze a multimedia news report?

With the increasing depth and breadth of the audience's thirst for information, the media forms are constantly innovating, and the significance of in-depth reporting is also constantly enriched. In the field of journalism in China, there are many studies on in-depth reporting. The author tries to theoretically discuss the definition, improvement space and development trend of in-depth reporting in the era of multimedia communication.

Connotation of in-depth reporting in multimedia era

The predecessor of in-depth reporting is explanatory news, which originated in the United States in the 1930s. American journalists call explanatory news the product of 1929 economic crisis. The economic crisis that swept across the United States plunged the whole Jin and Yuan empires into chaos, and Americans fell into a maze, demanding not only what happened, but also the cause of the incident and its relationship with politics and society. Some American journalists also realize that pure news written by objective reporting can no longer go deep into the incident, let alone analyze the reasons and reveal the impact and development prospects of the incident, which can neither meet the requirements of readers nor violate the duties of journalists. As a result, in-depth reporting came into being.

At present, there are at least dozens of definitions of in-depth reporting in academic circles, which can be summarized as follows:

1. How to report. For example, "In-depth reporting is a way of reporting on major news events and social problems in a systematic and in-depth way, clarifying the causal relationship of events, revealing the essence, tracking and exploring the development trend of time."

2. Stylistic conception. In-depth reporting is a relatively independent style between dynamic news and news commentary.

3. Report thinking theory. For example, "in-depth reports are reports that focus on new thinking" and "news reports with profound thoughts that can reveal the internal attributes, interrelationships and certain development laws of objective things and fully reflect the significance of the times and society are in-depth reports". ①

Comprehensive analysis of the above definitions, it is not difficult to see that scholars' definition of in-depth reporting is still limited to the traditional media era, without considering the comprehensive application of the multimedia era. In practice, the author concludes, "The so-called in-depth reporting is to present news events in a context that can show its true meaning from both vertical and horizontal directions by comprehensively using multimedia reporting methods around the practical problems of social development."

Misunderstanding of multimedia in-depth reporting

Myth 1: Simple combination of multimedia means. Now, with the development of network information and the gradual installation of audio-visual equipment, some journalists are used to consulting and piecing together information from the Internet and writing long reports. They rarely go deep into the scene of the incident or find witnesses and parties for detailed interviews, or even bother to call to check the situation or pay attention to finding relevant historical materials. What is written in this way seems magnificent, but after careful reading, it is found that the text is irrelevant and even inconsistent. This kind of report is just rearranging the materials; Some journalists are used to "adding pictures" or "adding sounds". After the interview, they take a photo or several groups of pictures at random to "put on a facade", thinking that as long as they add a reporting mode and enhance the auxiliary functions of reporting methods, they will complete in-depth reporting, and the result is a simple listing and a waste of resources.

Myth 2: The means of multimedia reporting are separated. Due to the traditional division of labor of journalists, it is often easy to cause the situation that people who know words can't make images, can make movies and are not good at writing. This situation was possible in the past, because in the past, people's living space was narrow and their desire for information was not strong, or they could give meaning to the events they learned according to their own experience. But now, foreign information has gone far beyond people's experience, which requires professionals or authoritative experts to make a reasonable scientific explanation of the social phenomenon behind this information. However, due to the different educational level, social experience and preferences of the audience, it is difficult to solve this contradiction by a single reporting method. It is urgent to use multimedia to jointly report, increase information and cooperate with each other, so as to be accepted by the audience and win the news competition.

Myth 3: In-depth reporting is a summary of planarization. In the era of traditional media reporting, in-depth reporting is understood as a flat discussion, and even some media measure whether it is in-depth reporting based on whether to post commentary articles and the number of words in the articles. Therefore, when planning and guiding in-depth reports, we should pay attention to the written reports of print media. Some TV stations also take these reports as the basic material, or distribute empty shots, or the host comes out and tells readers some big and empty truths with a straight face. Although such reports sometimes have a certain depth, the communication effect is not good. You should know that no matter how deep the in-depth report is, it is not a theoretical article, and it cannot be from concept to concept and from reason to reason. The audience needs to stimulate reading from many sides and angles.

Reading interest, and the comprehensive use of multimedia can meet this requirement. Trend analysis of multimedia in-depth reporting

In the past, we often judged whether a news fact was worthy of in-depth reporting according to the elements of news value such as pertinence, salience and importance, but in practice, these elements were still abstract and based on the disseminator's theme. Today, information communication has changed from "seller" to "buyer", from "disseminator-centered" to "audience-centered". In order to grasp the "eyeball" and let the audience realize its depth, the key lies in the effectiveness of information to the audience. Western media summed up three "I" principles: information, interest and influence. These three "I", from human instinctive needs to personal experience to survival interests, highlight the relevance between news and audience. ②

Based on the above analysis, the author believes that the trend of in-depth reporting in the multimedia era has the following trends:

Trend 1: When reporting topics in depth, the objective and dialectical multimedia awareness will be further strengthened.

The topic planning of in-depth reports is mainly in line with the new situation of deepening reform and opening up in China. In the era of reform and opening up, new things, new problems and new contradictions emerge one after another, which requires accurate and scientific explanations and answers from the news media. At the same time, news competition has promoted the development of in-depth reporting. Considering that newspaper news can't compete with radio news and TV news in speed, timeliness and vividness, the newspaper first makes great efforts in in-depth reporting, that is, by means of "graphic interaction" and "news distribution comments"; Radio stations began to use live recordings and expert comments; Television stations are also catching up, making full use of their own advantages and making up for their own disadvantages. In addition to using written manuscripts, they also distributed live shots and interspersed with photographic pictures, gradually forming the initial form of multimedia in-depth reporting. All this was done before the topic was selected. In news interview, every reporting method is a part of news development.

Judging from the in-depth coverage of major news events in recent years, such as "fighting against SARS", "Olympic Games", "American presidential election" and "Arafat's death", the media's awareness of multimedia in in in-depth coverage has been obviously enhanced. For example, in Harbin Daily, in addition to writers and photographers, in recent years, there have been more reporters who are responsible for network and audio-visual news gathering and writing. Every time there is a major topic, a lot of "arms" are sent at once. As long as the audience comes into contact with any reporting media, they will be guided to watch and listen to the in-depth reports of this matter in other reporting forms of this media.

Trend 2: In-depth reporting will use multimedia to realize more thorough "dispelling doubts and doubts".

The audience's urgent demand for information flow "clarification" and "dispelling doubts" provides a growing soil for the widespread use of multimedia reports. The audience needs not only news that the communicators can read, but also news that has been "interpreted" by the information communicators. ③

According to cognitive psychology, human cognition often coincides with the greatest degree of relevance. The greater the cognitive effect, the less the effort for processing, and the stronger the correlation. The audience wants to get as much information as possible, but almost everyone will consciously or unconsciously choose, contact and accept information that they are interested in or related to their own interests, and they are more inclined to accept information patterns that are more isomorphic to their own experience world. And multimedia reports meet the needs of the audience. In the first half of 2005, a UFO was dug up at the site of Harbin Steam Turbine Factory. At that time, Xinhua News Agency reported by means of words, pictures, audio-visual and other means. Afterwards, Shanghai Oriental TV adopted all the words, pictures and audio-visual broadcasts of Xinhua News Agency. According to users' feedback, their editors think that the audiences of TV stations are varied and have different hobbies, and there must be different needs for such in-depth reports, so we broadcast them from multiple angles, which is the need for us to achieve the maximum communication function.

Trend 3: In-depth media coverage will be divided by multimedia to achieve the best reporting effect.

In-depth reporting is not isolated from other reporting methods. "Clarification" and "dispelling doubts" must be based on and surpass the general information dissemination, which is often manifested as a gradual process and the successive arrival of several levels. Scholars point out that there are three ways to produce contextual effect between new information and context: the integration of new information and context; New information reinforces existing assumptions; New information refutes or rejects existing assumptions. These three levels are the touchstones to test whether an in-depth report is close to the truth and how close it is. ⑤ Communication believes that the communication function of words and images can be realized at the above three levels according to the needs of the audience. Therefore, we must improve the traditional way of news expression, be good at using the thinking mode of multimedia expression, and transmit information at different levels from the aspects of pre-announcement, news gathering and writing, tracking reports, etc. Until the event report is completed, the whole context must be clear and clear.

Trend 4: Multimedia in-depth reporting will focus more on constructive topics, and multimedia professional news editors will become the protagonists of in-depth reporting.

In-depth reports in the past came more from the supervision of news and public opinion. On the basis of continuing to strengthen news supervision, in-depth multimedia reports in the future will pay more attention to capturing "social conditions and public opinions" and report on topics that people really care about, such as re-employment projects, the introduction of housing reform policies, medical system reform, poverty alleviation, national fitness, environmental protection and ecological balance, and community cultural construction. According to the characteristics of different media reporting methods, we should choose the starting point and the words should be appropriate.

Under the requirement of in-depth coverage of the situation, news organizations have also trained a large number of compound talents who are good at multimedia reporting. Take Xinhua News Agency as an example. In recent years, it has been emphasizing the interaction between pictures and texts and cultivating "multi-life journalists". In some local branches of Xinhua News Agency, cameras and audio machines have been distributed to reporters, and photographers and TV reporters have also been assigned the corresponding task of collecting and writing reports. In some major emergencies and in-depth reports, we can often see the troops of Xinhua News Agency fighting. ⑥ Some large-scale market-oriented media also began to recruit talents with "one specialty and many functions" from traditional media at high prices, which not only saved their training costs, but also made their reporting level further. Therefore, for those who are good at multimedia reporting,

The competition for "leading figures" will be the focus of the next competition for news communication talents. ■