You'll find your experience with the newspapers less frustrating if you accept the idea that the reporter is there to tell not your story but his or hers.
The reporter is telling their own story, not yours.
Reporters are exclusively telling the story of the reader, and never their own.
A man is sitting on the subway.
The cyclist is performing a trick.
A bunch of people at a farmers market on a sunny day
The band is now on stage.
A man is using a computer.
A group is standing around.