Correspondent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is in a foreign country. The term correspondent refers to the original practice of filing news reports via postal letter.
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[edit] Reporter vs. correspondent
A correspondent generally interjects some of his/her own opinions into the reported news. A reporter on the other hand in general considered to be impartial, i.e. only reports and nothing more. The term and spirit of the reporter is found more in British news, such as the BBC. While the correspondent is more of an American term, used in media outlets such as NBC or Fox News.
In Britain the term 'correspondent' usually refers to someone with a specific specialist area, such as health correspondent. A 'reporter' is usually someone without such expertise who is allocated stories by the newsdesk on any story in the news.
[edit] War correspondent
A war correspondent covers stories first-hand from a war zone. It is perhaps the most dangerous form of journalism.
[edit] Foreign bureau
A foreign bureau is an office set up to support a news gathering operation in a foreign country.
[edit] On-the-scene TV news
In TV news, a "live on-the-scene" reporter reports from the field during a "live shot". This became an extremely popular format with the advent of Eyewitness News.
A recent cost-saving measure is for local tv news to dispense with out-of-town reporters and replace them with syndicated correspondents, usually supplied by a centralized news reporting agency. The producers of the show schedule time with the correspondent, who then appears "live" to file a report and chat with the hosts. The reporter will go do a number of similar reports for other stations. Many viewers may be unaware that the reporter does not work directly for the news show.[1] This is also a popular way to report the weather. For example, AccuWeather doesn't just supply data, they also supply on-air meteorologists from television studios at their headquerters. [2] [3]
- See also: Video news release, Eyewitness News, and Double-ender
