By Beatriz Carvalho
Normally our life is full of compromises. To handle everything in 24 hours we need to organize and plan our day in order of relevance. We have pressing obligations and those who are not so urgent. This is why the journalist or the press secretary need to be organized in the face of the “rain” of subjects, information, and story suggestions that they have, considering what is more important and appropriate at that moment for the newspaper and for their client.
To help them in this tough task, they prepare an assignment. The assignment works for the journalist or the press secretary as a compass for a navigator. It is responsible for giving directions and commands for the construction of an article, by starting the investigation of a story. For this, the assignment needs to be filled with basic instructions to guide journalists in their task.
It was formerly common in newsrooms of newspapers to have a specific person who had the function of drafting the assignment. Today, the assignment is made by the editors and sub-editors of the newsroom and the media relations offices.
A good assignment has to be rich in details. It must contain a summary of the fact, what is the approach (which marks the individuality of the report), the position taken, if is going to have interviews (which time and place), who are the sources (interviewee’s job or function). It is very important that the journalist or the press secretary have a wide range of sources, because these are the people who have information that can enrich and legitimize the report.
Despite being detailed, the assignment is not rigid. It can be changed in all its aspects, taking into account the factual events that may occur after the assignment is ready.
