What is a Television Report?

Starting from section entitled “Beauty is the purging of superfluities.”

The first step towards finding out the essence is to question and ask yourself questions. Michelangelo, who was showered with praise as a sculptor, always answered in the same way; that he simply removed the unnecessary bits from the block of marble. In the same way that Michelangelo cleaned out the marble with his chisel, the reporter cleans out the truth with his questions. Michelangelo’s chisel removed the unnecessary marble; we should remove the unnecessary information.

We are paid to provide criteria, not just information

Nowadays there is nothing easier than gathering information; what is difficult is separating the grain from the chaff. The best way to confuse journalists isn’t to avoid them but to drown them in information. To follow the trail you have to continually ask yourself questions. The answer to each one will lead us to the relation between the events we are uncovering and the context that gave rise to them. This is the basis of the journalistic methodology for approaching the truth.

If we could talk to Parmenides we would tell him that the essence isn’t so much behind the appearance of things but more in the relation between things. The reporter’s job is to establish the relation between the events that take place in a particular context. In the case of a TV reporter the problem lies in finding the way to show the events and explain the relationship by correctly using audiovisual resources.

In detective films both the uniformed policeman and the detective are on the scene of the crime; they both look but only one sees. The detective makes connections, associates ideas and relates situations to one another. This is exactly what we are talking about; looking beyond appearances, the status quo is of no interest to the detective. The powers that be want pleasant portraits from close up, not interrogations – they want to concentrate on functions and not dysfunctions. This is not the intelligent view we are looking for.