The main genres of journalism

Specialty journalism, like other professions, has its own characteristics. Here, a specialist faces the problem of finding a topic and its design in a text version. To correctly reflect reality and present your own thoughts, a journalist needs first and foremost perfect knowledge of the language and its modern norms, then possessing a literary talent that allows you to "feel" words and intuitively distinguish their semantic features (and therefore harmoniously integrate them into the text), and , Finally, a knowledge of the basics of textology, which will give an understanding of genres.

In this article, we will examine the main genres of journalism, which are typical for periodicals. However, this does not mean that they are irrelevant for television or radio journalism, because they are characterized by a common semantic basis and structure of the text, and the main difference is only in their application: some will be printed in the publications, and others will be announced by the announcers or moderators.

Information genres of journalism

Let's start with a description of the most common genres of media today - information. Modern conditions dictate an accelerated pace of life: in a unit of time, a lot of events occur about which the public should know, and it is this genre structure that can meet these requirements: having turned on the TV, opening a newspaper or switching FM stations, we will necessarily meet a summary of short messages that answer To the main questions: "What?" "Who?" "Where?" "When?" "How?".

This group of genres is distributed in electronic media and periodicals. It prevails where daily publication or broadcast is required, so magazines that come out with a rare periodicity are not so full of information texts.

Key representatives:

• the note;
• Information interview;
• Information correspondence;
• reportage;
• Information report;
• Blitz poll.

The most common among them can be called a reportage, a note and correspondence.

Characteristic features for this group of genres:

• Small volume;
• Accuracy in expressions, lack of visual means;
• The absence of an authoritative assessment of the event / phenomenon covered;
• Factual description and content.

Analytical genres of journalism

This group of genres is represented by a variety of species. They are currently not so common for periodicals and television, and for the radio this is not atypical genres. Nevertheless, there are specialized magazines and TV programs devoted to the analysis of modern phenomena.

The main representatives of the genre:

• analytical report;
• Analytical interview;
• Analytical correspondence;
• conversation;
• Monitoring;
• a comment;
• article;
• review;
• Review;
• Journalistic investigation.

Such materials are among the most common. On television, they are allocated in most cases in the evening time, and in the periodicals are allocated whole rubrics. In fact, they are very valuable for journalism as a social phenomenon, since they give an opportunity to express their opinion to the author and to open the world a new look at ordinary things.

Characteristic features of this group of genres:

• Presence of author's assessment;
• Large amount of material;
• analytics;
• Display of internal connections between events, phenomena and persons;
• Prognostic assumptions.

Artistic and journalistic genres of journalism

This group of genres as closely as possible links journalism and literature. Mastering them testifies to the high level of mastery of a journalist who is able not only to "extract" information and analyze it, but also to submit it in an artistic form. These genres of journalism require a rich lexical reserve, and most importantly - literary talent. At present, they are not so common in periodicals, on television and radio, as before, but nevertheless occur in specialized programs and publications (mostly journals). There is an opinion that today in the periodicals of this journalism does not exist, but we will not adhere to the pessimistic point of view.

Key representatives:

• feature article;
• feuilleton;
• pamphlet;
• legend;
• joke.

So, the most outstanding representative of the genre is an essay, the features of which suggest the possibility of maximizing the literary talent of a journalist.

Genre features:

• Literary;
• Artistry (the presence of visual means in the text);
• Emotional saturation;
• Deep comprehension of reality (author's).

The ease of mastering these genres of journalism depends more on the availability of literary talent from the author than his professional skills and perfect knowledge of the language.