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Methods of collecting information for reporting. Methods of collecting journalistic information. General characteristics. Genre classification of journalistic texts

When a journalist has already chosen a topic for a story and is preparing to create it, he is almost immediately faced with the problem of choosing the most reliable source of information. The most common methods of collecting information in the 21st century are observation, interviews and document study. The most objective method is the latter, but rarely does anyone resort 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 based on a conversation and requires fairly extensive preparation on the part of the journalist. In order to conduct 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 conversation plan. This will help you 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, you should pay attention to the remarks and the emotional color of the remarks; this will help you form the most correct impression of the interviewee’s attitude to the conversation. Remember, a friendly attitude and awareness will help you conduct a quality interview with almost anyone.

Observation

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

Work with documents

The most objective way of collecting 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 record the title, date of the document, clearly indicate quotes and the pages from which they were taken.

In addition to the main methods of collecting information in journalism, there are also sociological methods. These are surveys, content analysis of text, journalistic experiments and other methods borrowed from sociology. Each of them is important and interesting in its own way, but can only be used 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 that you already have. If you “get into” the situation in the wrong way, then your material will be worthless, and that’s not what you want.

Ticket No. 13 Sources and methods of collecting journalistic information

As M.N. writes Kim, “at the heart of any journalistic work are facts—the original building blocks from which its entire structure is built.” That’s why the collection of factual material is so important. However, not every fact can become a “building block” there; it must meet a number of certain conditions: be of public interest, have information value (be news), be reliable, prompt and complete. Life is an ocean of facts of different volume, importance, character, most of which exist in connection with others. Here the question arises about one of the aspects of working on journalistic information - about the creative search for facts, the search for information.

It should also be noted that, using various sources of information,

thoroughness and discretion are important, because the slightest factual inaccuracy can discredit a journalist. In addition, “carelessness in searching for information leads to the fact that a journalist can misinform the public and damage people’s reputation” (V.V. Voroshilov. Typology of Journalism), as a result of which trust in the journalist will be undermined.

Finding information is, to some extent, a science, because each journalist develops his own style and technology for working with information sources. To do this, a journalist needs to imagine reality as a set of information sources and know their coordinates.
In essence, the entire information environment is divided into three types of information sources: document, person and object-material environment.

1. Documentary type of information sources.
The concept of “document” is used today in two senses. Moreover, one of them is more voluminous: a document is “a material recording medium with information recorded on it for transmitting it in time and space,” and the other is narrower: “a document is a legally secured paper that asserts its owner’s right to something.” or confirming any fact.”[Large explanatory dictionary of the Russian language]
When talking about the significance of a document as an information source in journalism, people often focus only on its narrow meaning. Meanwhile, as G.V. Lazutina writes, “both meanings of the word are relevant for journalism: “business paper” is only one of many types of documentary sources of information that fall into the sphere of journalistic attention in accordance with the purpose of the activity.” [G.V. Lazutina Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist.]
The information that a journalist can extract from documentary “information storehouses” is of a completely different nature: from laws and decisions of the highest authorities, from the fundamental provisions of well-known scientific works to characteristics and descriptions of places, people, and events.
A journalist’s communication with documentary sources of information begins with their search. Now, during the “information explosion,” this issue is especially relevant. Working with documents requires a high level of document management, bibliographic literacy, and a broad understanding of the types and types of documents existing in society. In journalism, the following classification of documents is accepted.

By type of activity that generated the document:
1. State administrative;
2. Production and administrative;
3. Socio-political;
4. Scientific;
5. Regulatory and technical;
6. Reference and information;
7. Artistic.
The second classification, less extensive than the first, is based on grouping

by areas of their circulation. The vessel includes documents:
1. Production;
2. Public organizations;
3. Household.
" Under production documents This means a set of texts (including personal ones: statements, reports and explanatory notes, requests) that provide information services for the production life of work collectives, the needs of management in the state and production spheres”[G.V. Lazutina Fundamentals of the creative activity of a journalist.] Such documents are always subject to registration. However, there is neither a regulatory act nor departmental instructions that would clearly define the procedure for a journalist’s access to them. Therefore, representatives of the press often refuse officials. We have to look for workarounds, convince people related to these documents to help the journalist.
The situation is similar with documents of public organizations - texts that provide information services for the activities of parties, movements, and associations of various kinds. In many cases, representatives of the press service, after a journalist requests such information, ask to make do with the data provided by them. “This leads to collisions, in resolving which the journalist, trying to fulfill his professional duty, finds himself on the verge of risk: trying to obtain documents in a not entirely legal way.” [G.V. Lazutina Fundamentals of the creative activity of a journalist.]
In work with household documents– by the totality of official and personal materials that provides information services to people in everyday life, the search is the most difficult thing. Most of them are not subject to accounting, moreover, they, as a rule, represent the personal property of a person (that is, whether to present a document or not is determined only by the will of its owner). “Applying to documents of this kind, be they letters, diaries, obligations or receipts, requires the journalist to clearly understand that the right to receive and use information from them is given only by the voluntary consent of their owners.”
Sociology has developed the following division of documents, used in

journalism:

1. By the method of recording information (handwritten, printed documents, films and photographic films, magnetic tapes).
2. By type of authorship (personal and public, for example, a receipt for receiving money and minutes of a team meeting).
3. By document status (official and unofficial, for example, government decree and explanatory note).
4. According to the degree of proximity to empirical material (primary, for example, completed questionnaires, and secondary - a report written on the results of a survey based on a generalization of questionnaire data).
5. By the method of obtaining the document (naturally functioning in society, for example, statistical reports according to the established “target” model, i.e. created by order of a journalist - for example, a certificate of the activities of institutions).
“Depending on the nature of the document and the goal of the journalist, the choice of analysis methods occurs. These may be general methods ( understanding, comprehension, comparison) or special ( source studies, psychological, sociological, criminological).”[ T. Zasorina. Profession journalist.]
The process of a journalist mastering a document consists of three stages: data extraction, interpretation and recording.

1. The first of them presupposes the journalist’s ability to quickly and deeply process iconic information products.

2. The quality of the second, based on the analysis, evaluation and explanation of the data obtained, “depends on the extent to which the journalist is able to include into common sense considerations the evaluation criteria specified by the system of knowledge of a general methodological and special nature.” [G. V. Lazutina Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist.]

3. Much depends on the skill of accurately recording data obtained as a result of studying documentary materials. In this context, it is appropriate to talk about the creation of a new document - professional records of a journalist, which, under certain conditions, can have legal force.

However, working with documents necessarily involves how checking them for authenticity, as well as determining the reliability and reliability of the data contained in them. If doubts arise about the authenticity of a document, i.e., about its actual origin from the author and under the circumstances suggested by the text of the document, it is necessary to analyze it in a special way. This analysis involves attention to the content characteristics of the document, its external side, in order to identify signs of authenticity or non-compliance with them. Sometimes it is quite difficult to determine the authenticity of a source using such techniques, then specialists come to the rescue - historical source scholars, textualists, criminologists.

At the same time, it is important to distinguish between documented information (endorsed text) and facts of the “as learned from credible sources” type. Operating with such information requires special reservations.[ E. P. Prokhorov. Introduction to the theory of journalism.]
To ensure the accuracy of the information contained in the source, journalists resort to the rules for verifying the authenticity of documents adopted in sociology. According to them it is necessary:
1. Distinguish between the description of events and their interpretation (facts and opinions);
2. Determine what sources of information the author of the document used, whether it is primary or secondary;
3. Identify the intentions that guided the author of the document when giving it life;
4. Consider how the quality of the document could be affected by the environment in which it was created.
It is also equally useful to check the source by comparing it with other information, and in a situation where a document becomes the basis for serious conclusions and generalizations, the journalist needs the advice of a specialist who can act as an expert in a particular field.
2. Object-material environment as a source of journalistic information.
The object-material environment refers to the environment that surrounds us. Objects and things can tell about events sometimes no less than a person. The main question for a journalist is where to find these sources. At the moment, society has established an understanding of the need to provide organizational information support to the media.

Journalist information systems.
Today in our country there is a fairly comprehensive system of informing journalists about current events. G.V. Lazutina considers the following to be its main forms:

1. Briefings – short meetings of media workers, at which they become familiar with the position of power structures on a particular issue;

2. Presentations – ceremonial meetings of representatives of any state, public or private structures with the public, including representatives of the press, to familiarize themselves with the new enterprise, new products, new results of activity;

3. Press conferences – meetings of government or public figures, representatives of science, culture, etc. with journalists to inform them about current events or to answer their questions;

4. Press releases – special summaries of press reports about significant facts in a particular area of reality, prepared by the relevant press services;

5. Special information newsletters about current events in a particular field of activity, created by corporate news agencies;

6. Emergency messages by fax or e-mail received by the media from press secretaries and press services. Press centers of various departments and public associations. [G.V. Lazutina Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist]
They supply media editors with business information, which is then

are reflected in the materials of print and broadcast journalism. Special mention should be made of clubs and associations of journalists. They are not actually producers of information, but they facilitate the exchange and dissemination of important messages, the conclusion of contracts and agreements in this area. “An example is the association of foreign media correspondents accredited in Moscow, the number of which has increased exponentially with the liberalization of Russian foreign policy.” [S. G. Korokonosenko fundamentals of journalism]

From the differences in information channels, it follows that they achieve the greatest mutual understanding with the audience only if they act together, as elements of a single system. After all, it is necessary to take into account that a person and society are influenced by several sources of information at once, and it is natural that consumers of media products experience some discomfort when these sources either repeat each other or, conversely, express diametrically opposed points of view.
It is also extremely significant that today the law provides for the right of journalists to request and receive information from government bodies and organizations, public associations and officials.

Government organizations as sources of information.
And yet, timely collection of information about significant changes in reality, about those aspects of life, knowledge of which is necessary for the audience, remains the number one problem for the media. First of all, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the entire set of natural “information stores” that have developed in society for a given period. It turns out that for information about unfavorable events and for information about favorable events in society there are different “storages”, and the first (police, ambulance, fire service, emergency services, traffic police, people's courts, and so on) due to natural reasons known to people much more, and therefore better mastered by journalists. Information about favorable ones is recorded with a greater or lesser degree of reporting in the relevant management services of municipal districts. Unfortunately, this does not happen as quickly as in cases of unpleasant properties. Therefore, it is quite important to imagine the structure of government bodies, both in the country and in the city and region. At the moment, an incredible number of periodical reference books containing information of this kind are published. Such a reference book is a good assistant in the difficult task of obtaining information.

News agencies.
It is worth talking separately about such a source of journalistic information as news agencies, due to their specificity. These information services provide journalistic activity, supplying them with “raw” factual material, material designed like hard news, but they themselves, as a rule, do not come into contact with the audience.
(From the history of Inf Agencies all sorts of information)
The idea of this kind of enterprise arose at the beginning of the 19th century; journalists around the world owe it to the Frenchman Charles Havas, who was the first to spread a network of his representative offices in different areas, selling the facts he obtained to newspapers and magazines.
At the moment, the following agencies are the most popular in the global information market: Associated Press and United Press International (USA), Agance France-Press (France), Reuters (UK) and ITAR-TASS (Russia) . These news agencies are the most powerful sources of information in the world; they are represented in the information market of most countries. S. G. Korkonosenko gives the following example: the share of information products of the American news agency “Associated Press” in the European market reaches 80%. [S. G. Korokonosenko fundamentals of journalism]
Regional agencies operate within large regions of the globe. Next in size are national agencies, regional, city, as well as those created by publishing houses and broadcasting companies.
It is a source of pride for both Russian professionals and the entire nation that the largest news factory, ITAR-TASS, has been operating on par with the world giants Associated Press and Reuters for decades. He had many direct and distant predecessors: the Russian Telegraph Agency (1894), the Trade and Telegraph Agency (90s), the St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency (1904), the state Russian Telegraph Agency based on the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (1918). The latter is considered its direct predecessor, since in 1925 ROSTA turned into the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, which later became one of the world leaders. Now ITAR-TASS operates on five continents; in Russia there are branches and correspondent offices in all regional centers. The scale of production of this agency is indicated by the fact cited by statistical studies that within 24 hours it prepares and offers consumers – other representatives of the press – more than 150 newspaper pages of primary news information.
In the early 60s, another non-state news agency appeared - the Novosti Press Agency (APN), which later became RIAN - the Russian News Agency "Novosti".

As V.V. writes Voroshilov in his book “Typology of Journalism”, the increasing importance of a new type of information related to the needs of business and the private sector of the economy, became one of the reasons that led to the creation of alternative non-state news agencies to ITAR-TASS and RIAN. [V.V. Voroshilov. Typology of journalism] The first – in 1989 – to emerge was “Post Fact”. In the beginning it was the Fax information service, created to inform the first private enterprises and cooperatives. In May of the same year, the agency was registered as an independent Post Factum service. At the moment, this news agency has an extensive network of correspondents throughout Russia and the CIS, maintains business relations not only with domestic and foreign media, but also with government bodies, banks, industrial firms, etc. “Journalists have the opportunity receive information in the form of thematic reports and newsletters on issues of ecology, culture, economics, military affairs, aviation and astronautics, etc. In addition, the agency offers services: use of a database that contains publications from hundreds of Russian media, daily announcements of upcoming events of the day, continuously updated collections of “hot” news.”

Another major Russian news agency is Interfax, whose first clients were foreign journalists, embassies and Western firms located in Moscow. Although economic information has long become the most important “good” for many Western journalists, practically no one offered it to the Russian economy at that time. Today, the agency maintains close relations with private business, having about two thousand subscribers in Russia and over a thousand foreign ones. As a source

For journalistic information, this agency is essentially one of the most reliable and trusted. The information received from this agency is used by the most prominent journalists in our country.
Currently, there are many medium and small news agencies (Sibinform, Ural-Accent and others). In St. Petersburg alone in 1996, 13 agencies operated: “North-West”. “Delo - Inform”, “ITAP - PRESS”, “INMIR” (information - mobilization of intellectual resources),

“Exclusive”, “SPHINX - POSTINFORM” (founder - Student Federation of Information Contacts “SPHINX-Post”), etc. In addition, 18 different newsletters are distributed in the city: “For traffic safety”, “Law”, “Life”, “Information for entrepreneurs”, “Taxes and business”, “The suffering of an entrepreneur”, “Our district”, “Primorsky news”, etc.
For the purpose of increased efficiency, the largest news agencies use all types of communications, including space communications, and have powerful computer centers that serve for the preparation, processing and storage of information that is continuously received by consumers via teletype, or in the form of operational news bulletins, press releases, often leaving several times a day.
So, news agencies transmit to journalists the most timely and relevant social, political, economic information, thereby significantly reducing the time and financial costs of press workers for sending their correspondents to remote geographical locations, for obtaining the latest information from government sources, the extraction of which is sometimes is problematic, to inform about the situation in “hot spots” and zones of armed conflicts, etc.
Internet as a source of journalistic information .
The end of the twentieth century was marked by the emergence of a unique and

An extremely promising source of information is the global computer network Internet. The Internet is an inexpensive, powerful mechanism that can provide significant assistance in the development of independent journalism in Russia. It is difficult to overestimate the amount of information useful for a journalist that the Internet contains. But beyond that, it can strengthen the connection and consistency between journalists and their news publishers in Russia. It also ensures fast and reliable connections between journalists and their news sources, even when they are several thousand kilometers apart. It can connect media in Russia with rapidly developing electronic networks abroad (mainly in the US and Europe). As already mentioned, the Internet provides alternative methods of journalism in times of crisis, or in the event of a reinstatement of censorship. And for a nation going through difficult economic changes, the Internet provides new funding opportunities through the electronic distribution of news, publications and advertising.

3. Man as a source of journalistic information.
A person is a key link in the system of information sources. G.V. Lazutina cites the American scientific tradition, where it is classified as a “living source”, “and this is not only the direct meaning: man is a subject of activity, he is included in natural and social processes through many connections and therefore is an inexhaustible source of information.” [V. G. Lazutina. Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist]
Indeed, a person, on the one hand, is a witness or participant in the events taking place around us and therefore acts as a carrier of information about these events. On the other hand, he is the holder of information about himself, about his inner, unique world. And finally, he is a transmitter of information received from others.
The peculiarity of this source is that it may or may not open up to the journalist: as a social being, he himself programs his behavior, this must be taken into account by every journalist working with this source of information.

=Interview.
Of course, most often a journalist receives the lion's share of information in interviews - direct communication with people who have one or another relationship to the situation being studied. However, conversation as a method of cognitive activity is very different from ordinary communication. After all, in essence, an interview is “a type of organized speech interaction that is directed by the journalist with clearly recognized cognitive tasks and involves the development of strategy and tactics that correspond to the conditions of interaction.” [V.G. Lazutina. Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist]
The journalist must be clearly prepared for the upcoming interview and must know what information he can count on when starting the conversation. Most often, this is the following information: factual data, knowledge in a particular area, opinion on a particular matter, explanations or comments of a particular event (incident) that took place, proposals and forecasts. Moreover, each type can be presented in a very diverse manner. For example, facts can be given either positive or negative; they can be from both the past and the present, both from the interviewee’s own life and from the private life of another person. It goes without saying that the interviewee is not willing to talk about all things with a journalist. This requires the journalist to have certain nuances in behavior and certain tactics. Here, knowledge of the psychology of communication is important for a journalist. If the interviewer’s questions are aimed at clarifying the views, judgments, and attitudes of the interlocutor on certain aspects of reality, then this, in fact, reveals the personality of the interviewee. Most often, this situation appears before us in portrait interviews.
Another important quality of an interviewer is the ability to “get along with people.” After all, the quantity, and, perhaps, the quality of the information received during the interview depends on how much the journalist was able to “talk,” open up his interlocutor, and win him over to the conversation.
M. N. Kim identifies the following interview classifications. Depending on the specific content of the conversation, interviews are divided into formalized and informal, the former involve clearly informing the journalist about the fact, while the latter are more inclined to obtain extensive information about the interlocutor.

According to the degree of intensity, interviews are divided into short, medium and focused., and each type is used depending on the goals pursued by the journalist. [M. N. Kim. Technology for creating a journalistic work]
Naturally, every journalist has a certain interview tactic. The combination of various kinds of questions, their alternation, sequence, conscious choice of those means of communication that turn out to be most appropriate under given conditions, the rhythm of the conversation, special polemical techniques - all these are manifestations of thoughtful tactics.
According to G.V. Lazutina, the interview turns out to be quite successful, from the point of view of information saturation, if the journalist:

1. Thoroughly prepared for the conversation (mastered the subject of discussion, has an idea of the interlocutor as an individual);

2. Learned to control the flow of the conversation, promptly noticing the emergence of barriers and promptly neutralizing them;

3. Masters a sufficient number of techniques that can stimulate communication. [V. G. Lazutina. Fundamentals of creative activity of a journalist]

Valery Agranovsky in his book “For the Sake of a Single Word” outlined a number of fundamental principles for conducting interviews:

1. A true journalist must approach the interlocutor, firstly, with a thought, and secondly, for the thought (our questions should encourage the interlocutor to think and speak.)

2. For a conversation to be fruitful, the interlocutor must at least be interested in it. In fact, a journalist can ask questions out of duty, but he can receive answers to them only if the interlocutor wishes.

3. The journalist himself as a person should be interesting to the interlocutor. [V. Agranovsky. For the sake of a single word]

As T. Zasorina notes, each source of information has its own capabilities and limitations. Interviews are the most subjective source of information. Since, for example, different people, eyewitnesses of the same event, talk about it differently and often even disagree. [T. Zasorina. Profession journalist.] But perhaps this is also the positive property of this source of information - the opportunity to hear a different view of the problem, to evaluate the situation from a different point of view.
Every journalist has to act as an interviewer, ask people, conduct conversations, without which the preparation of material is rarely complete. In my opinion, a journalist needs to organize an interview in such a way that the following can be said about it: “You, Socrates, ask great questions, and those who ask good questions give me a pleasant answer.”
=Communication between journalists and “colleagues”
Oddly enough, communication between fellow journalists is an inexhaustible source of useful business information - in such conversations, media representatives not only exchange factual material, but also have the opportunity to immediately comprehend it, come up with a specific topic, and clarify the concept.

Here is how the famous journalist Valery Agranovsky spoke about this: “I don’t understand editorial offices where classic silence reigns, where the offices are in orderly clerical order, and on the walls there are obligations to issue so many lines per month, surpassing the neighboring department. The editorial office is not an office, no matter how ironic we are about this, the editorial office is a “living” place, a crossroads where there is an eternal movement of legs and thoughts, where people crowd into one office from all the others to talk. Where there is a creative discussion of numbers, plans and problems with the right to speak out with impunity, where brainstorming sessions are cultivated, where they wait with interest for colleagues to return from business trips and where they happily return. Only in this atmosphere is a productive exchange of information possible.” [IN. Agranovsky. The second oldest.] In my opinion, such a process of obtaining information by journalists has a fruitful effect on their creative activity, helps maintain information cooperation between journalists, which in turn has a positive effect on the quality of the information presented to the audience.

=Observation

Observation also serves as a source of information, which, when constructed correctly, makes it possible to study a phenomenon, and not its individual aspects.

Systematic observation is observation focused on obtaining

data on the development of a particular sphere of reality, on the behavior of a particular person with the help of multiple direct and indirect contacts over a long period of contact.

Observation is a long-established method in journalism. Voroshilov cites a number of successful uses of such a source of information as observation. In order to carry out the observation as effectively as possible, famous journalists Mikhail Koltsov, Larisa Reisner, Ivan Gudimov and others temporarily changed their profession (such observation is called participant observation). Lime worker V. Nadein, for example, traded at the market to prepare the feuilleton “How I Sold a Ram”; Alla Trubnikova entered the monastery as a novice to describe the life of the monastery from the inside, and published the essay “Journey to the 18th Century.” [V.V. Voroshilov. Journalism]
An analysis of the creative experience of journalists suggests that recording observations has a very individual character. In journalists' notebooks you can find all kinds of notes - descriptive, emotional, evaluative expressions, apt words, analogies, interpretations... These little things convey the mood, feeling, give the material credibility, create the “effect of presence.”
Depending on the position of the observer, open and hidden observation are distinguished. During open observation, the journalist does not hide his presence, purpose and content of his work. While hidden for the time being, he does not communicate the true purpose of his investigation and work.
Intuition, capacious imagination, a clear selection of other people's perceptions, the general level of development of the journalist himself, the initial creative attitude - all this helps to effectively use observation in journalism.
An essential feature of this source of information is that “visual contacts in this case are supplemented by the continuous accumulation of documentary materials reflecting certain moments in the life of the object and allowing one to see new or persistently recurring phenomena.”
4. Sociological ways of obtaining information (At Korkonosenko's)
=Mass interviewing and survey .
Among all the types of facts that a journalist has to deal with, classroom information occupies a special place. Without regularly receiving and understanding information about who and how perceives this or that situation, this or that fact, the media loses any chance of the competitiveness of its products in the market. “Audience research is a necessary and important aspect of professional work in the media. Professional not only in the sense of performing official duties, but also from the point of view of a qualified, competent approach to the audience.”[Journalist and information. Ed. S, G, Korkonosenko.].
Mass survey is a method of obtaining data on the state of public consciousness, public opinion, social practice on a particular issue through an oral survey of many people. The main difficulty for a journalist here is to formulate questions that would allow them to get from the respondents not an excuse, but an answer to the point.
Questioning is a method of obtaining the same data through correspondence (written) survey through closed or open-ended questionnaires. Closed questionnaires require a choice of answers from those proposed in the questionnaire, while open ones provide the opportunity to freely formulate an answer to the question.
Competency in compiling a questionnaire is the primary condition for the reliability of the resulting information. It is advisable to have a preliminary consultation with a sociologist on this matter, especially if the subject of study is complex and requires the questionnaire writer to be highly qualified.
In recent years, press sociologists have increasingly used telephone surveys. This is appropriate for researching an audience in a small area - in a city, district, etc. “However, here the interviewer is required to have maximum tact and correctness, since his immediate task is to gain trust

and maintaining the attention of the interlocutor.”

Surveys and questionnaires have very great opportunities and freedom - in principle, you can get an answer to any question (of course, if the question is asked correctly). However, this is a rather subjective source of information, since each person has individual characteristics of perception, selectivity of attention and memory properties.
=Experiment.
Journalists resort to experiments much less frequently, since this method requires large costs - time, resources, material, organizational, etc.

“An experiment is a method of obtaining information about an object through identifying a reaction to an experimental factor, which is one or more of its variable characteristics.” [V. G. Lazutina. Fundamentals of the creative activity of a journalist] Intuitively, journalists have long sensed the opportunity to discover new things about people and situations in this way, but these were isolated episodes in professional practice. But in the second half of our century, the experiment began to be used intensively and with a focus on sociological developments. The first scientific descriptions of the experiment as a method of journalistic knowledge appeared not so long ago, and again, taking into account sociological recommendations.

The essence of the journalistic experiment is that the journalist creates a situation that forces people to show their qualities that were “preserved” before the experiment. The experiment also makes it possible to detect non-obvious processes and patterns in the work of institutions and enterprises.

=Content analysis

This is a content analysis, which aims to obtain quantitative characteristics of a phenomenon - for example, the frequency of appearances on a newspaper page of the name of one of the candidates for deputies in comparison with another, the repetition of one form or another, etc. This method brings significant benefits when studying reader (listener, viewer) mail, which makes it possible to understand the thematic preferences of the audience, its typical complaints about the editors and wishes. The methodology for conducting content analysis requires a clear identification of units of account, without which statistical results and conclusions may be incorrect.

Ethical standards in working with sources of information

There are several rules (recommended, but not generally accepted). Not should: pretend, i.e. introduce yourself as an employee of another profession (with the exception of participant observation); intimidate the interlocutor, advise and give recommendations; promise to look into it and take action; allow morally condemnable actions; get closer to the characters; accept gifts and services from sources; record a conversation on a voice recorder without the knowledge of the interlocutor;

(From the State University of Moscow State University)

The concept of “method” (from Greek - research) is understood by the theory of journalism as “a form of practical development of reality”. Thus, a method is a set of actions aimed at solving certain problems. In this case, the main task is to create a journalistic text based on the information received. Stages of the creative process: obtaining information - comprehension - creating a text.

Systems of methods are associated with the processing of the resulting material. Communication as an interviewing method, for example. The creative method of journalism can be aimed not only at finding the truth, but also with the opposite goal. Those. This is not a mechanical technology, but a creative method.

1. Observation. Based on personal knowledge of reality through 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 (mediated contact, using indirect data). 2. By time, by the amount of time spent on short-term and long-term. 3. Based on whether the observer has declared or not declared his role - open and hidden. 4. According to the degree of participation of the observer in the event, into included (the observer penetrates into the organization and sees everything that happens from the inside) and non-involved (study from the outside).

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

3. Processing of documents. A document is most often a written certificate of a person. But several types of documents are distinguished for different reasons: 1. By the type of recording of information (handwritten, printed, photo, film, and magnetic films, gramophone records, laser discs, etc.) d.). 2. By type of authorship - official and personal. Z. By proximity to the display object - initial and derivative. 4. By 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, everyday 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 author of the document used, whether it was primary or secondary. 3. Reveal the intentions that guided the author of the document, giving it life. 4. Compare, if possible, the contents of the documents under investigation with information obtained on the issue under investigation from other sources. 5.Use the chronological principle of considering facts.

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

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

5. Criminological investigative methods. Use of technical means.

None of the methods is exhaustive; it is necessary to combine them (the so-called “complementarity principle”)

St. Petersburg State Engineering and Economics University

Report on the theory and practice of public relations:

“Methods of collecting information in journalism

And PR -communications"

Female students1st year Faculty of Humanities

Groups 6031

Lavrova Maria

Teacher: Evseev A.Yu.

2004

In general, not only journalism and PR communications deal with obtaining, searching, and collecting information, but also many other professions - scientist, investigator, intelligence officer, psychologist, doctor, etc. In fact, any area of activity where the key factor is whether the information regarding 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, that is, information about actually occurring processes and phenomena. A judgment not based on information can lead to unpredictable consequences, including complete rejection or the opposite of the expected reaction. Therefore, searching, structuring and correct evaluation of information is a key stage 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 will achieve 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 and its lack should be avoided.

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

In journalism and PR, the methodological basis of the process of collecting and information creatively compiles all the variety of methods from various disciplines. A journalist or PR worker in this context brings together such disparate factors as his own experience, personal qualities inherent in him due to personality characteristics, 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 formal in nature, but turns into an element of primary creative activity, which largely determines all subsequent stages of his work. The role of intuition, which suggests which fact should be found and recorded, how to find this fact and where its use in the future will bring maximum benefit, is no less important than the complex of professional skills to obtain it.

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

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

While studying the literature, I discovered that methods of collecting information are so diverse and invariant, depending on the context to such an extent, that even an approximate, cursory description of them would take up a huge amount of text. Journalism and PR have their own specific professional methodological features, but in a general sense, grouping them according to key characteristics - although such a classification is to a certain extent arbitrary - they can be divided into three groups:

Communication methods.

Non-communicative (documentary and physical).

Analytical.

Communication 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, conversation, interview and survey.

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

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

The main communicative means of obtaining information in practical journalism is interview(full-time or correspondence interview), as a result of which the journalist realizes certain goals to obtain certain information. It in turn is divided into formalized and informal. Formal interviewing is characterized by a fairly 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, editing 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 broadcasting; as a result of this option, we receive publicity, since this process is unpredictable and uncontrollable. As a rule, this method is characteristic of radio and television.

The surveys 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 of conducting a collective interview in the form of a group discussion during which subjective information is collected from participants on identifying 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 instructions, other types of documents, etc.) gives the journalist a huge information array, on which he can rely on in his work on the material. Another very effective method is the methods of obtaining information through the use of various surveillance tools. However, observation (monitoring), as a non-communicative method, even without the use of special devices, often provides invaluable information, since in this case the journalist himself can become an eyewitness to the event, observe the situation, etc. For PR, monitoring means conducting media analysis, writing style, and manner of presenting material. It is important to have a sufficient picture 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 instruments, devices for recording 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, they can often be made visible only with the help of a reconstruction experiment. It is this principle that underlies the realty genre, which is an extremely popular genre of artistic journalism these days (“Rescue Phone 911”, “First City Clinic”, etc.). In the program "Town" and many newspapers, journalists use a practical joke experiment to use it to obtain information about a person's reaction under certain given conditions. For PR, this method is convenient because it minimizes costs and it is possible to find out about the reaction of the audience or 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 using the other methods we have considered. A journalist has to deal with situations when an event does not have eyewitnesses who can reconstruct its circumstances, when an object or subject is of a specific nature and cannot be defined unambiguously, when there are too many conflicting opinions regarding the event. These are the majority of disasters, anomalous phenomena, events in the world of science, crimes, emergencies and historical events that, for one reason or another, become socially significant and relevant. In these cases, obtaining information directly is unlikely, complicated by various circumstances, and sometimes simply impossible. On the contrary, there is too much indirect, unconfirmed data, guesses and conjectures. Analytical methods of science are extremely diverse, and it is quite difficult to list them all. Let's give 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 mainly about the precise systematization of data according to various criteria (chronology, theme, significance, etc.)

Comparative analysis (comparative methods), in which an event, phenomenon or object is compared with a similar one (just remember how television news “frames” various types of disasters and crises, talking about similar phenomena, drawing voluntary or involuntary parallels).

Deductive and inductive methods, that is, the construction of judgments in the first case from the general picture to the particular details, 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 being studied.

In PR, one can especially highlight the analysis of documents, including with the help of the media and the Internet. For ease of study, the following forms are used: clipping, monitoring, transcription of electronic media. To determine the quality of text information, the method of content analysis is used - translating mass text information into quantitative indicators with subsequent statistical processing.

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

Tags: Methods of collecting information in journalism and PR communications Other Finance, money, credit

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