A reporter opens the doors between events and public comprehension, because only when there is comprehension can there be logical and empathic responses that make sense.
To a well functioning democracy the reporter is our Clarke Kent and Lois Lane, they are the everyday superheroes that enable the public to make reasonable and kind responses rather than knee jerk reactions. They are an essential part of the social ecosystem, trusted to do much of the social analysis that others in different professions are to busy to achieve.
The pen of the reporter can choose if the public is fenced into reaction and emotion or if they are enabled to escape its confines into the larger realm of empathy, logic, self control and other perspectives.
The reporter helps to show the invisible walls to gaining wider perspectives, to make that perspex wall noticeable and then open it as if it were a sliding door.