->''"Listen, I can do a lot for you, what you’re tryin’ to do. I get the big scoop, you make a big splash, get some support. What do you say?"''
-->-- '''[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Scoop]]''' to Elliot Ness, ''Film/TheUntouchables1987''

An IntrepidReporter or other type of storyteller is looking for something sensational. He overhears a conversation, or bumps into the heroes, and decides to join them, either to tell their adventures or to use them as his bodyguards to learn more about the BigBad, the ArtifactOfDoom or TheConspiracy.

A subtrope of the more general TagalongChronicler. He or she will usually do little to no fighting, simply staying behind and filming / taking notes / commenting on the fights. They can also develop into a more active role as a {{Sidekick}} or even a {{Deuteragonist}}. These characters often turn out to be NarratorAllAlong.

Not to be confused with a reporter in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} bringing the news in Tagalog.

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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Okamura from ''Anime/BloodPlus'' follows the main characters all around the world.
* Diethard joins the Black Knights from ''Anime/CodeGeass'' solely because he finds Lelouch interesting.
* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', Grimmer joins up with Dr. Tenma in order to figure out what was going on at the Red Rose Mansion--while he is a traveling freelance journalist, his actions are for personal reasons as he [[spoiler: was part of Bonaparta's child experimentation going on there.]]
* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' adds a news reporter called Tina. Her main role being to serve as the host in the end of show segments.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Alexa in the Decolora Islands arc of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite.'' Although she always seems to have to go do something and, in some episodes, misses most of the story. Ironically, she still tags with Ash long after he parts ways with Iris and Cilan, accompanying him to his journey to the Kalos region at the start of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY''.
** When Todd, the photographer PC from ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'', appears in other media, he becomes this to the protagonists. He's appeared in the anime seeking to photograph rare Pokémon, and as a reporter in the ''Emerald'' arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Deconstructed with Cassie Arnold, who tags along with White Magician and gets to be the first reporter at incidents he takes care of because he keeps her in the loop. The problem is she's reporting what White Magician tells her to in order to control public opinion on him and most of it is lies to make his murders look like acts of heroism.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' fanfiction ''[[Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon Abraxas]]'': [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonHumans Steve Martin]] (a MythologyGag to ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1956 that]]'' [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1956 Steve Martin]]) first appears being apprehended by Monarch security for trespassing while trying to get a scoop on Thor and Monster X. He remains at Outpost [=61a=] with most of the human heroes for most of the fic, he gains their permission to officially accompany them as an authorized journalist for an up-close meeting with Monster X, [[spoiler:and he uses his contacts to try and get tracking help for the heroes after [=MaNi=]/Elder Brother goes after Monster X]].
* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''. The President of Earth forces [[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton Captain Proton]] to take Buster Kincaid of the Interplanetary Telepress with him during his investigation, so the Space Rangers will get some positive publicity after Buster photographed Proton in an [[NotWhatItLooksLike embarrassing position]] with a household robot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina''. Gracie Law tries to get aspiring IntrepidReporter Margo Litzenberger to write a story about David Lo Pan's criminal activities. The reporter goes along with the group in the attempt to free Miao Yin from the White Tiger brothel.
-->'''Margo:''' God, it's creepy. Do we have to go in? Because I will, if we have to. I'll go anywhere or do anything to get my story. It's my big break.
* ''Film/FiveWeeksInABalloon'' (inspired by the Creator/JulesVerne novel). The crew includes Donald O'Shea (Red Buttons), who is sent along to write about the expedition and act as an impartial witness if they succeed in beating the slavers to the unclaimed territory.
* In the 1938 Film/FlashGordonSerial ''Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars'', reporter Happy Hapgood is an [[AccidentalAstronaut accidental version of this trope]].
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. IntrepidReporter Polly Perkins insists on going along with the title character in search of whoever's behind the giant robot attacks. Sky Captain ''really'' doesn't want this, because she's an old flame that he's convinced sabotaged his aircraft while GoingForTheBigScoop (and possibly because she was jealous of another lover). Much BelligerentSexualTension ensues.
* In ''Film/TheGreatRace'', Maggie [=DuBois=] sets out to be a tagalong reporter, but when neither Professor Fate nor The Great Leslie will take her with them, she enters her own car in the race. Ends up being a tagalong reporter through most of the race anyway, with one group or the other, when her car breaks down.
* In ''Film/TheGreenBerets'' Creator/JohnWayne takes a wimpy liberal pacifist reporter along to prove how awesome the Berets are and the importance of fighting (and winning) UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
* ''Film/TheKillingBox'': The Union patrol and their Confederate prisoner are accompanied by a clumsy civilian photographer.
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Mason Weaver]] in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' maneuvers [[GenderBlenderName her]] way onto the expedition and is in fact the only person there who wasn't specifically invited.
* Joe Galloway in ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'', who we first see [[QuickNip downing his drink]] before he hitches a ride on a helicopter headed for the battlefield. He spends the rest of the film taking photos of the fighting and [[WarIsHell trying to]] [[ActionSurvivor stay alive]].
* ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'': In the opening scene Ned Scott, a journalist meets the Air Force protagonist and decides to do a story about the "downed aircraft". Later on it becomes something of a RunningGag that amidst the in-fighting over what to do about "The Thing" (protect the world by destroying it or try to communicate with and understand it) he just wants to get a photo of the monster (and repeatedly joins several armed searches for the Thing solely for this purpose). He does still get to say the memorable final words of the film, though.
* ''Film/DasBoot'': Lt. Werner is on U-96 as a war correspondent for the express purpose of chronicling the crew's exploits.
* Joker from ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' is this to the Lusthog Squad.
* This ends badly in ''Year of the Dragon'' (1985). Tracy Tzu is talked into covering [[CowboyCop Stanley White's]] crackdown on the Triads, gets increasingly drawn into his investigation (at one stage he's using her apartment as MissionControl, much to her annoyance) only to get gang-raped by three men sent by the BigBad to scare her off.
* In the 1960 Italian sci-fi ''Space-Men'' (a.k.a. ''Assignment: Outer Space''), TheNarrator is a reporter who is nicknamed 'leech' by the astronauts because he's like a parasite--using up air and food but not fulfilling any function on the space station.
* In the documentary ''Film/NineEleven'', Jules Naudet (a French filmmaker) is present on an quiet morning with a New York City Fire Department branch (Battalion 1), as part of an otherwise-routine documentary about the life of firefighters, when he manages to film one of the few known pieces of footage showing American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. From there, he accompanies the Battalion to the North Tower, being allowed the Battalion Chief, Joseph Pfeiffer, to accompany him inside and film the on-the-ground reaction at the scene. What he captures is the only known footage inside both towers, and is present at the point where the South Tower collapses (forcing those at the Command Post set up on the ground floor to run into a nearby escalator path to avoid the debris, along with filming the department's regrouping outside the North Tower and their subsequent run when that tower begins to collapse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The sci-fi novel ''Embedded'' puts an interesting twist on this trope, as the reporter in question is not physically present in the hostile area, but tagging along via BrainUploading.
* Edward Malone in ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912''.
* In Creator/MichaelConnelly novels Jack [=McEvoy=] is this, becoming involved in FBI investigations of serial killers in ''Literature/ThePoet'' and ''Literature/TheScarecrow''. Partially this is due to his relationship with FBI agent [[FairCop Rachael Walling]]. Minus the relationship, there is an element of truth to this as Connelly himself was a former reporter working the crime beat.
* David Drake's ''Rolling Hot'' starts with a reporter interviewing an officer of Literature/HammersSlammers, thinking he can expose the government's waste of money on foreign mercenaries. Then insurgents attack, his cameraman is killed, and he picks up a grenade launcher.
* ''Literature/MurderForTheModernGirl'': After her initial encounter with Ruby at a party, news reporter Vivian Forbes often pops up to assist her and her friends, giving them what she knows about important details such as the corruption going in Chicago and what the people behind said corruption is capable of.
* ''Literature/TheNamelessWar'''s Jeff Harlow, our man at the front, is an intrepid reporter hoping to get a scoop that will make him a household name but not actually kill him.
* In ''Literature/TheLastDaysofNewParis'', Sam, who wants to document the bizarre events and living art of New Paris, attaches herself to Thibaut the surrealist artist who lives -- and fights Nazis -- in New Paris.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* It's easy to forget that ''Series/TheATeam'' had one of these. Amy (Melinda Culea) was featured prominently in the pilot and continued as a regular, but as the show entered production it turned out this resourceful crew had little need for her. Both Culea and series lead George Peppard were reportedly unhappy with how her role played out in the first season--Culea pushed for more lines and more involvement in the team's operations and fights, and Peppard was convinced the show didn't need a female lead at all. She was [[PutOnABus abruptly written out]] partway through season 2. Nonetheless the character was replaced by another tagalong reporter, Tawnia (Marla Heasley), this time as a recurring character; but there was even less for her to do, though at least she got a proper goodbye episode.
* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'':
** Brodie starts out as a TV news intern and ends up being a "crime scene recorder", getting videotape of crime scenes and the crowds around them.
** Series creator Creator/DavidSimon was himself a Tagalong Reporter. He took a year off from writing for the ''Baltimore Sun'' and spent it embedded with the Baltimore P.D. Homicide Unit. This became the non-fiction book ''Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets''. Many of the show's early stories were adaptations of real cases from this period.
* ''Series/QuantumLeap'': Sam leaps into a member of his brother's Navy SEAL squad in UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}}, and there's a female photojournalist embedded with them. Sam has to make a choice between saving her or his brother.
* Jake Sisko on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' stays on the station as a combat reporter on the Dominion War when the rest of the Federation citizens had evacuated. Since his father is one of the leaders of the anti-Dominion forces, it's pretty clear where his sympathies lie.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Stephano, an interviewer for IWA Puerto Rico and The World Wrestling League, often goes out of his way to get stories about wrestlers, including following them around outside of the arena doing their daily routines. He can back up those who he forms friendships with in a fight too, [[CowardlyLion if he has to]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision with embedded reporters in general.
* Ernie Pyle as one specific example.
* Evan Wright. Literature/GenerationKill is his best known result.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' supplement ''Shadowbeat'' mentions this as a way of including a Reporter character on a shadow team's missions, as either a {{PC}} or {{NPC}}. One of the short stories has a video reporter tagging along on a mission to bring badly needed medical supplies to an underground group that's suffering from disease.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Albert Genette, TheNarrator of ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'', follows the Wardog Squadron even after [[spoiler:they are branded as traitors and officially killed during their escape (Genette "killed" along with them)]]. Kinda ironic how he made the Wardogs famous with his articles, yet was denied the right to report the final, most important missions they flew as the Ghosts of Razgriz.
* Frederick Lancaster winds up working for the Canyon Crows in ''VideoGame/FrontMission1'' after interrupting one of their missions looking for a scoop. Unusually for this trope, you have the option of putting him on the front line and making him fight alongside your other soldiers, since ''Front Mission'' is a HumongousMecha game.
* ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarrior: Ten Hammers'' has a tagalong reporter for at least the first mission.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' has this is the form of [[http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shing_Jea_Sherman Shing Jea Sherman]] who follows the player and his/her party and other players and spouts out random quotes mostly concerning of the various titles and achievements. Even his main dialogue window exemplifies this trope, "I'm working on a new piece for the Monastery Gazette. A sexy exposé on all things adventurous. I can tell by your smell that you're on a mission...or out of soap. How I would love to follow you on your exploits. Watch you destroy your enemies with ruthless impunity; witness how you scrub those tough-to-clean blood stains off your armor. Allow me the privilege to tag along and observe, would you?"
* In ''VideoGame/{{Illbleed}}'', Jorg Baker is a newspaper investigator who came to cover the titular theme park but gets caught up in Chapter 5's events. He quickly realizes that he's in over his head and simply follows the player character through the chapter as a detective. [[spoiler:Afterwards, he becomes a playable character too.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'', a journalist accompanies you during an EscortMission. After you lead her safely to her apartment, she promises to break the story about your treatment at the hands of BigBad Starkweather.
* Kylie Koopa in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime''.
* Diana Allers in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', who is considered a War Asset if allowed to tag along on the ''Normandy'' and report on its crew's battles. Justified in her case in that she is member of a military-sanctioned news network and actually requests permission to join Shepard.
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'': Taylor is a reporter who can be receuited for Frey's army. You'll first find him questioning the guards outside (note: your castle must be lvl. 2 or higher for this event). He'll then ask to use different areas of of the castle for interviews, agree each time (four in all) and he'll join you. From then on he chronicles the war against the Godwins. You can even read each issue (they're posted in the restaurant area) at your leisure.
* Carley in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' video game. She is also an ActionGirl who learned how to shoot while an embedded reporter.
* Ms. Ellet, the war correspondent that befriends Squad 7 in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''.
* Happened in one ''WesternAnimation/SkyDancers'' episode. In a bit of playing the trope for drama, the reporter's insistence on interviews meant the Sky Dancers arrived too late to help people being menaced by Skyclone.
* ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone'' has [[VideoGame/SpaceChannel5 Ulala]] show up in one level (titled "Ulala's Swingin' Report Show", appropriately enough), only to then force herself into your party once she sees how many celebrities are in it. Thankfully, she can actually fight pretty well, as fans of her own series can attest.
* Elena Fisher of the ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' series. In the first game, she was originally hired by Nathan Drake to do a piece of his discovery of Sir Francis Drake’s coffin. After he and Sully conned her and left her behind to find El Dorado, she tracks them down by herself and gets tackled along in their misadventures. It happens again in the second game, where she’s on an undercover mission to spy on the war criminal Zoran Lazarevic, who’s looking for clues and artifacts that will lead him to Shambala. This leads to her again crossing path with Nathan Drake who’s trying to stop him. After that, she basically becomes one of the main characters for the rest of the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/SpiritHunterNG'', Ban forms the second set of Akira's companions alongside Rosé Mulan, helping him investigate spirits with his journalism skills.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Roger Evers in ''Webcomic/GenocideMan'' is a blogger for "Undercentral News" who started following Jacob Doe around in an attempt to film a documentary. Unfortunately that makes him almost as big a target as Jacob himself, especially after his editor hacked some drones that were attempting to kill them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* "Paperboy" Higgins in ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'' is a [=FedNet=] reporter attached to the Roughnecks and the narrator of the series. He's often a liability though Rico does give him some training.
* April O'Neill to the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.
[[/folder]]
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