Online "Field" Reporting

As the name suggests, a field report is a work of journalism that covers breaking news beyond the confines of your own office. It is the coverage of a news story in its location. You, the field reporter or correspondent, are part of a press team sent to actually attend and report on a major event unfolding in real-time while also obtaining firsthand accounts from other attendees.

As a member of the press, it is your job to document and report on location whether physically or digitally, near or far. Outputs of field reporting generally include live broadcasts and comprehensive news articles.

On-site Reporting

Prior to the restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, press teams from both actual news companies and student publications would venture out to the “frontlines” of a major development in real life. Standing by a designated location with clear distinctions from other people in the area, these “frontlines” can be in the form of a meeting hall where a person of importance is speaking, a battlefield where a significant belligerent is pushing the other, an evacuation center following an onslaught of a natural calamity, or perhaps simply SISC's corridors where another schoolwide celebration is happening.

On-the-spot and ambush interviews with individuals with the event are commonplace while field reporting. People of importance, event organizers, and the ordinary Juan dela Cruz alike can be subjected to this. If the field report is meant to broadcasted live, field reporters would stand in front of a video camera and relay any breaking news information from there. If the field report would be in the form of a written article, field reporters would usually note down any newsworthy happenings while there.

When it comes to logistics, field reporters often carry around a recording device, pens, a notebook, a laptop, and press badges. Other members of the press team often carry professional or video cameras for visual documentation.

A.Y. 2021-2022, with the recent opening of pilot face-to-face classes through the form of HyVOLT, on-site reporting and the previously mentioned details are slated for gradual reemergence. Nevertheless, online reporting has an entirely unique skillset that the standard curriculum will not often instruct.

Online Reporting

Research, research, research

Whether it be its contents, themes, or key people involved, prior research of the event you'll report on is absolutely necessary. You wouldn’t want to go in it blind without a clue about what’s to expect, right?

Find out what specific concepts the event will tackle. Ask yourself what exactly is the significance this event will have in a sea of other similar incidents. Dig around to find what makes this event in particular newsworthy to your audience — the student body. Research, too, to know who are the key people involved: their background, their position, their knowledge of the event, and even their conversational style.

Further, knowing these details can help you formulate several interview questions that go beyond superficial queries that ask things from the surface level. You can craft more thought-provoking and rounded questions that look into specifics thanks to research. It provides more nuanced perspectives on the event while creating your field report.

Photojournalism

In a live setting, photographers are commonplace in press teams. Referred to as photojournalists, they take pictures of major developments unfolding or key people speaking. Photojournalists capture the key moments of a certain incident and give a visual guide for readers, telling them the story from an optical perspective. In fact, some of the best photojournalists have the ability to tell a story with only their photographs.

In the online setup, however, field reporters can rely on the power of taking screenshots. This leads to the crucial step of always asking consent from either the event heads, attendees, or both for their faces to be captured and potentially be featured in published work. It is an issue of privacy for those who are captured, so any unwarranted screenshot will not be taken lightly by them.

Formulating interview questions

Field reporting is never complete without the interviews. More than just broadcasting what’s happening, getting to know the personal insights of an event’s attendees gives a more rounded, fleshed-out overview of what exactly is transpiring. To put it simply, interviews give another perspective to an event than just what you observed. They can be event heads, people who took part in an activity, or random audience individuals. When conducting one-on-one engagements, proper etiquette is a must for a conducive interview to happen, and this section delves right into how.

For further elaboration on how to prepare, act, and document interviews, read this chapter on Conducting an Interview wholly dedicated to orchestrating fruitful sessions.

Informing the interviewee

We wouldn’t want our key interviewees to suddenly be grabbed away from the scene and feel unprepared to answer our questions, nor do we want them to feel like they’re in a police interrogation, right? Hence, it is crucial that before asking any interview question, you must preface what you’re doing and why. You are a field reporter covering this specific event and you wish to conduct a recorded interview to gain their insights on behalf of The Mover’s press team. You’re not here to perform an inquisition of whodunnit.

If the event is happening on Zoom, private message the person you want to interview on the Zoom chat and direct them to another breakout room. Some Zoom events have breakout rooms assigned only to press members, so maximize that as much as possible. If the event is ongoing on Google Meet or has, perhaps, already elapsed, you may cordially email them your request. If you know your eyed interviewee’s contact information on other platforms or perhaps know them already on said platforms, you can ask for their consent there.

Should in case they decline your invitation or do not reply, don’t feel disheartened; you may feel free to ask as many other people as you like until you’ve obtained the information you need.

While interviewing

Your actual interview can occur through Zoom, Google Meet, or any preferred videotelephony platform. If they opt to do a live and recorded interview, properly introduce yourself again and the reason for pulling them into an interview. Talk about casual stuff real quick first; they’re just about as nervous as you are. Be sure to record the entire session, whether it be through a screen recording (Xbox Game Bar on Windows, Quick Time Player on Mac, and the record button on Zoom) or audio recording. An extra recording device such as your phone would act as a great contingency if in case some audio was not properly captured.

Once you reach the interview proper, feel as if you’re engaging in a conversation and not acting as a test examiner — do not opt to ask your questions in list form. Let the transition be natural; talk about the response your interviewee just made and let it sieve into your next question. That way, both you and your interviewee have each others’ minds eased.

When the interviewee makes pauses in the middle of a response, it’s best not to interrupt them. Allow them the time to think out their response; more interesting information will likely spew out if you let them be. Moreover, if you forget a question or have a new question in mind, don’t be afraid to ask it. If it’s for the sake of completely gaining the person’s insights, ask ahead! The only thing stopping you would be time itself.

Once you asked all your questions and gained the information you needed, say thank you to your interviewee for taking the time to participate in this exchange. Assure them that even if some of their words won’t be directly quoted in the field report itself, what they mentioned has been a great help in completing it.

In-text interviews

There would be times when the people you ask to conduct an interview with would decline to do it live due to scheduling conflicts or a general lack of time. With that in mind, you can always opt to ask if they may do an in-text interview instead.

In the same platform where you first messaged them, you may simply type down your question/s for them to answer. If they decide to respond on a separate file, they may. Think of it as like those reflection questions you’d answer everyday, where the prompt is already given and the interviewee will just write/type down their thoughts on it. Once they sent you their responses, thank and assure them as previously mentioned.

Press Conferences

Once you’ve gathered all your data after a period of field reporting, it’s now time to report back to The Mover all the events that transpired, insights that were spoken, and screenshots that you captured. This process is primarily done in two ways:

Live Reports

Live reporting online in The Mover involves Instagram stories that broadcast what’s happening and what people think about it. If you are assigned to do live reporting, you must always keep in touch with the Social Media Department of this publication. Not only will they design a story template for your reporting, but also attach any snippets you send them from the event in the form of Just In, Breaking, and ATM posts.

Through The Mover’s messaging platforms or your own direct messages, inform the SocMed Manager in charge of creating the Instagram story formats on the newest updates. You can send them screenshots of the event, descriptions of what’s developing, quotations from speakers, and short interview responses. This process can be done the whole day or until the event ends

You may take a look at the live reporting story of highlights on The Mover's official Instagram page for more references.

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