Understanding Media Types and Journalism Subgenres

Media Classification

Media can be classified according to the communication codes employed:

• Written Press: Employs linguistic, iconographic, and typographical codes.
• Cinema and TV: Utilize linguistic, iconographic, and chromatic codes.
• Radio: Relies on sound and linguistic codes.

Features of Mass Media

• The receiver is plural.
• Economic interests and the issuing companies' ideologies largely determine the transmitted content.
• Advertising funds the media.
• Feedback is difficult; the receiver usually cannot influence the program and its development.
• The importance that the receiver gives to the medium, for example, when we sit down to watch TV and do not see a previously selected program, that is, priority is given to the medium before the message.

Interpretative Journalism

In interpretative journalism, information predominates.

• Man: The expressive function predominates, and sometimes the appellative.

Subgenres of Information

• News

  Objectively exposes actual events.

  Structure:

  • Headlines

    Serve to grab the reader's attention and give a glimpse of the events.

  • Lead

    The first paragraph sets out the most important elements.

  • Body

    Develops and expands on the news, including accessory data.

• Feature

  Requires intensive documentation work on the part of the reporter and offers an in-depth view of an event. Normally, a journalist moves to the scene to solicit as much information as possible.

• Chronicle

  The journalist's assessment mixes with the objective of the exhibition of events, which is why some rank it as an opinion subgenre.

Subgenres of Opinion

Serves to transmit the opinion of a journalist on a current event.

• Article

  The opinion of a certain journalist on a hot topic; it is signed.

• Column

  Text similar to the article but more focused and has a fixed space.

• Editorial

  An unsigned article expressing the opinion of the newspaper, supporting the views and the ideological and socio-political stance of the publisher. The structure is not fixed, typically pyramidal with the climax at the end.

• Interview

  Captures a conversation between a journalist and a person who shares their views on a given topic of current interest or on the activities for which they are known. A type of interview is the guest interview, where the same list of questions is usually presented regardless of the interviewee.