Basic Trope: A reporter who actively seeks out stories, rather than waiting for them to come to her.
- Straight: Heather notices an unusual incident and digs into the mystery so she can get a scoop.
- Exaggerated: Heather risks life, limb and career on a daily basis to bring in the hottest, most exciting news stories.
- Downplayed: Heather seeks out scoops, but refuses to do anything illegal or life-threatening to get them.
- Justified: The newspaper Heather works for gives cash bonuses for exciting front page stories, "and a girl's gotta eat."
- Inverted: Heather gets all her stories by rewriting official press releases.
- Subverted: Heather pretends to be an Intrepid Reporter in the stories she files, but actually goes no further than the hotel bar.
- Double Subverted: She overhears criminals conspiring in the next booth and winds up actively investigating a story anyhow.
- Parodied: Heather is an energetic, adventurous reporter...for the Dinkyville Weekly Advertiser, which is printed in a rural area where Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here. Her big scoop of the week is usually which 4-H members won blue ribbons in livestock contests.
- Zig Zagged: Heather would like to get big scoops all the time, but often is assigned to rewrite press releases or cover creampuff stories that don't require her to be intrepid.
- Averted: No reporters in the story do anything proactive to get news.
- Enforced: "We need a character to dig into the mystery in this story, but the police are ignoring the incident and it's not really a job for a private eye. How about we have a reporter look into it?"
- Lampshaded: "You reporters just can't leave well enough alone, can you?"
- Invoked: Da Editor offers cash bonuses to reporters who bring in exciting (but printable) scoops for the front page.
- Exploited: A whistleblower sends mysterious messages to Heather in hopes of getting her to investigate wrongdoing at his company.
- Implied: Heather is seen digging into a microfilm machine at the library to research the company, taking copious notes. She is also seen at her desk making many phone calls to her sources; Da Editor reminds Heather that a fact is not verified unless two or more independent sources confirm it.
- Defied: The publisher of Heather's newspaper orders reporters to stick to rewriting press releases so as not to offend the advertisers. This is enforced with threats of dismissal if the reporter is caught being proactive.
- Discussed: "Another big scoop for Heather? At this rate, she'll be a shoo-in for a Pulitzer Prize."
- Conversed: "This show is sure exciting, but isn't the reporter a little too reckless? If Heather gets killed, who's going to write the story?"
- Deconstructed: Heather's attempts at getting the next big scoop consistently land her in legal trouble and cause her to be frequently hurt. Eventually she pursues a story one step to far and is killed for her trouble. Upon hearing of her death, her colleagues are saddened but unsurprised.
- Reconstructed: Heather's courage and persistence in tracking down evidence leads her to a well-documented big story that exposes a huge injustice that is being perpetrated against the people of her city. Her article leads the authorities to conduct their own investigation and a whole conspiracy is demolished, with great positive societal change. While Heather will walk with a cane and a limp for the rest of her life, she retires as the pre-eminent journalist of her generation and her memoirs become an instant best-seller.
There's something strange going on down at the waterfront! Go back to Intrepid Reporter and get me the scoop!
