Structure in the style of "Getting Points to Speak Out"

Another example: the report “Taking advantage of football cheering to race illegally” (7pm News program on July 13, 2007), the group of authors Xuan Tung – Hoang Luong stayed up all night with the police force to reflect on the activities of preventing, dispersing, and suppressing youth racing gangs in Hanoi. The report is structured according to the time axis from midnight to early morning with memorable milestones.

- “ Hanoi at 12 o'clock at night . The streams of people still do not stop and pour into the central streets. Flags, drums and shouts”

- “ 1:30 p.m. , Tran Quang Khai Street. Thousands of people driving vehicles stretching for 3 km. The roundabout at Chuong Duong Bridge was packed with people. Below, hundreds of teenagers were driving motorbikes, shouting. And the race began.”

-“ At 2am , the next shift was on the road again. The sound of revving engines on Tran Quang Khai Street and the old scene repeated itself. Hundreds of vehicles gathered and there were signs of racing on this street. We had to chase and suppress them again, and bring the violators back to headquarters.”

- “ At 3am, a group of young men came to rescue their teammates, including 6 people, who were surrounded by extremists. Dozens of young men surrounded them, insulted them and resolutely resisted the police.”

Maybe you are interested!

(See appendix)

It is clear here that the timeline from “ Hanoi at 12 midnight”, “ 1:30 on Tran Quang Khai street” to “2:00 am…” then “ 3:00 am…” has determined the structure of the report, creating a consistent flow of events. The events are presented in order, and the viewer is guided.

from moment to moment and anxiously await the event. This is a completely intentional structural choice by the authors.

To a certain extent, it is possible to see a fairly close connection between the linear-structured television short report and the quick-record or narrative genres that often appear on television news. The linear-structured short report is similar to the quick-record genre in its ability to reflect vivid, authentic information about a recently occurred event as well as in the appearance of the individual ego. However, the quick-record only stops at the level of surface information about the event without going into depth to explain the cause and meaning. On the other hand, the ego in the quick-record is the witness ego, not the appraisal ego as in the report. The linear-structured television short report is also similar to the narrative genre in its description and reporting of the event's development. However, the difference between these two genres is that: if in reporting, "the journalist narrates, describes, and comments in detail and vividly on the developments of an important event that occurs by witnessing or directly participating in the process of the event" [27, p.113], then the short report presents the order of the events through the selection of typical details with clear intentions to convey a certain message to the audience.

The linear structure is considered a simple structure. The group of authors GVCudenhetsov, XL Xvich, A.la.Iurovsky classified this type of reportage into "the group of genres that show the tendency to simply record reality" [9, p.18]. It is the simplicity in structure that makes the reportage very easy to fall into a state of monotony and boredom. Therefore, to be successful in using the linear structure, the reporter must be truly creative. In addition to closely following the general development of the event, the reporter must also know how to "pick out" sharp details, creating a work

They always encounter new and unexpected things. For example, in the report about the last working day of the National Assembly, the group of authors Van Thanh - Ngoc Tuan very skillfully selected typical details through the presentation of the events. At the time before entering the meeting, the chosen detail was that there were more handshakes than usual, many delegates took the opportunity to take souvenir photos... Obviously, this is the best detail to talk about a farewell, but it is a farewell in which " those who leave want to tell those who stay and those who will succeed them in the near future " many things. Or at the moment when the delegates walked out of the meeting room, the author "captured" a very meaningful detail: " in the farewell, people saw tears". The author stopped reading the commentary for 5 seconds to make room for the image of tears wetting the faces of some delegates appearing on the screen. A moment of silence is more valuable than any words. The author's intentional arrangement not only expresses lingering feelings but also opens up a stream of associations about what has been done and what has not been done by those who have carried the responsibility entrusted to them by the people for 5 years. The creativity makes the viewer no longer feel that the events are presented in a purely descriptive manner, but rather through the events' developments, profound ideological values are revealed.

In fact, the structure of a short television report in linear form is not a popular choice in Vietnam Television news programs as well as in domestic and foreign television news. This partly shows that this is not a modern structure, suitable for modern journalism style as well as the modern reception psychology of the press public. Researcher Claudia Mast said: " Reports should not be designed in chronological order. Interesting details should be pushed first. Readers will find the chronological order themselves " [31, p.41]. Of course

It is also necessary to see that in creative activities there are events that can only be reproduced by linear structures and therefore the existence or existence but more or less variations of linear structures is inevitable.

2.1.2. Structure in the style of "taking points to speak face"

This is a structure in which the report often begins with a specific detail, event or story (point) and then gradually increases the level of generalization (area) in the following parts. Therefore, the distinction between the information in the opening part and the information in the following parts in the short report structure is entirely based on the criteria of specificity and generality, not on the criteria of importance. The opening detail, story or event may be important or unimportant, but it must be specific and authentic, not general or vague and abstract.

For example, to talk about the hardship and danger of the diving profession, the group of authors Xuan Dung - Cao Tri opened the report "The hardship of diving" (7pm news program on March 11, 2007) with the image: " The small boats are not enough to feed any family in this poor fishing village of Ky Xuan... The nets rarely have fish to sell for money..." . The image is very specific but behind it is the suggestion of a difficult life in the sunny and windy Central coastal area. Poverty has pushed them into an unwanted way of making a living, which is to go to the South to work as hired divers, a profession that is compared to "eating earthly food and working in the underworld ". The author skillfully led and gradually raised the level of generalization of the story when giving heartbreaking numbers: " Almost all the young people in the commune, 800 people from the age of 16, were determined to go to the South to earn money by diving. 49 people lost their lives in the deep sea. 54 people are disabled for life. All of them are in their prime age...”; followed by an analysis of the hardships of diving “ At depth

a few dozen meters, the diver must endure extremely high water pressure. In return, staying there for dozens of hours every day, a year also brings in an income of 30-50 million VND... The way down to the bottom of the sea to catch lobsters and blood cockles for poor divers is only a flashlight and an oxygen tank from the boat down"; and then draw philosophical conclusions: " Many people with heart and brain compression died right under the sea. The survivors were disabled for life. People think the cause is due to water pressure, broken oxygen pipes, strong whirlpools in the sea... etc. But perhaps the root cause is that the divers in Ky Xuan have not found a job to replace diving enough to support their families. Until now, they can only close their eyes and surrender to their fate."

(See appendix)

The report “The hardships of diving” is a typical example of the structure of using points to talk about the surface. The “points” here are the images of small boats with few fish that cannot support life to talk about the difficulties and deadlocks of the people in the Ky Xuan coastal area, and the “surface” is expanded with information about the hardships and dangers of diving, with the explanation of the choice of dangerous jobs by the people of Ky Xuan as an inevitable thing. The breadth and depth of information gradually increase to reach the level of generalization as well as open up a new direction of thinking at the end of the report. Viewers will be tormented by the harshness of the life that the Ky Xuan fishermen “ still only know how to close their eyes and leave it to their fate ”.

In some foreign press documents, people call the opening details (or stories, events) of a report a hook to hang the information that the report is aiming for. If the opening is a hook, the next part will usually be the context.

(roughly translated as context), after context is unfolding (roughly translated as: interpretation, presentation...) and finally wrap (roughly translated as wrapping up the issue). The hooks section must always choose typical, attractive details, enough to pull the audience towards the screen. The context section states the issue in a specific and detailed way, the unfolding section is where arguments, analysis, and interpretation are presented, the wrap section wraps up the important points of the report and opens up a new direction.

This type of structure can be modeled according to the diagram below:

The structure of using “points” to talk about “face” appears quite commonly on the news of domestic and foreign television stations. The advantage of this structure is that it has the ability to “lure” the audience, attracting them to spend time following the whole issue. In addition, opening a report with a specific detail, event or story is always easier to plant something special in the audience’s mind than opening with a general proposition. Therefore, the opening must be carefully selected. This is like a kind of “bait” for the audience. It may not be an important detail, but it must be an attractive detail. The attractiveness of the introduction can be determined by the details themselves, but in many cases it is created by a combination of creative techniques such as images, sounds, commentary... For example, to explain the situation of farmers abandoning their fields, author Kha Thoa chose to open the report by giving unreasonable numbers: " 1000 VND is the income of rice farmers."

in the Northern Delta. A well-cultivated field yields 200 kg of rice. The average selling price is 250,000 VND/100 kg. After deducting expenses, farmers have about

90,000 VND. This amount must be divided equally for living needs for 90 days ." (news program on May 7, 2007 - See appendix). Or when making a report about the shortcomings in investment policies in war-torn areas, the group of authors Tran Uy - To Dung chose to start with a contrasting image: " These days, the people here can only sit and watch the rice plants die because of drought. On the other side there is a water source but it belongs to another commune, and people there do not open the sluice gate to let the water flow to this side ." (news program on July 24, 2007 - See appendix). In another creative way, the group of authors Thai Thanh in the report “The Way Home for Street Children” chose to start with the voice of a 9-year-old girl who used to wander in Nha Trang when reading a 10-point essay on the topic of happiness written by herself: “Happiness, happiness has left me. Before, I also had a warm family, went to school like other children. But then a business lost capital, my parents argued and divorced, so I decided to leave home...” (news program on June 1, 2007 - See appendix). The unreasonable numbers, contrasting images or the voice of a street child in the above examples all carry the intention of the reporter with the desire to touch the audience's psychology, pulling the audience back to the screen to follow the entire report. That is the effectiveness of the structure of “bait sentence”, “taking points to speak”. It is not by chance that Swedish journalist Eric Fikhtellius concluded that “ One of the golden rules of television reporting is to start the story from the concrete and then move to the abstract ” [18, p.88].

The structure of the “taking points to speak for themselves” style is a structure of bait-and-switch leading, so it requires a reasonable leading method, otherwise it will fall into a monotonous state. That is, the report must have an attractive introduction, the information must be gradually raised in level and the ending must generalize the problem. In other words, besides attracting the audience, the reporter must also know how to keep the audience because the most important information, the most wanted thing to say is at the end of the report. As the authors GVCudonhetxop, XL Xvich, A.la.Iurovsky commented, “ A good introduction will attract attention, thanks to a good ending, the document will be remembered ” [9, p.156]

2.1.3. Structure according to problem explanation style.

This is the type of structure in which reports often begin by stating the problem, including the most important and notable data and figures. Then the report explains the problem through details, arguments and finally returns to re-emphasize the problem while opening a new approach. This type of structure is quite similar to the hourglass structure or boomerang structure * mentioned in journalism theory. The difference between the problem-explaining structure and the hourglass structure is the report's ability to evoke, the ability to open up new directions of thinking after summarizing the problem. Thanks to that, the important information of the report is not only better retained in the public's memory but also awakens the public's field of association about related issues.

The problem statement structure can be modeled as follows.

Comment