New Journalism is a style of
news writing and
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non-fiction. Using extensive imagery, reporters interpolate subjective language within facts whilst immersing themselves in the stories as they reported and wrote them. In traditional journalism, however, the journalist is "invisible"; facts are reported objectively.
The term was codified with its current meaning by
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as ''
The New Journalism'', which included works by himself,
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
,
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...
,
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
,
Joan Didion
Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...
,
Terry Southern
Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to ...
,
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
,
Gay Talese
Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with ...
and others.
Articles in the New Journalism style tended not to be found in newspapers, but in magazines such as ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
Harper's'', ''
CoEvolution Quarterly
''CoEvolution Quarterly'' (1974–1985) was a journal descended from Stewart Brand's ''Whole Earth Catalog''. Stewart Brand founded the ''CoEvolution Quarterly'' in 1974 using proceeds from the ''Whole Earth Catalog.'' It evolved out of the o ...
'', ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', and for a short while in the early 1970s, ''
Scanlan's Monthly
''Scanlan's Monthly'' was a monthly publication which ran from March 1970 to January 1971. The publisher was Scanlan's Literary House. Edited by Warren Hinckle III and Sidney Zion, it featured politically controversial muckraking and was ultimate ...
''.
Contemporary journalists and writers questioned the "currency" of New Journalism and its qualification as a distinct genre. The subjective nature of New Journalism received extensive exploration: one critic suggested the genre's practitioners functioned more as sociologists and psychoanalysts than as journalists. Criticism has been leveled at numerous individual writers in the genre, as well.
Precursors and alternate uses of the term
Various people and tendencies throughout the history of American journalism have been labeled "new journalism".
Robert E. Park
Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of sociology, changing it from a pas ...
, for instance, in his ''Natural History of the Newspaper'', referred to the advent of the
penny press
Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style newspapers mass-produced in the United States from the 1830s onwards. Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible following the shift from hand-crafted to steam-powered printing. F ...
in the 1830s as "new journalism". Likewise, the appearance of the
yellow press
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include e ...
—papers such as
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...
's ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...
'' in the 1880s—led journalists and historians to proclaim that a "New Journalism" had been created. Ault and Emery, for instance, said "
dustrialization and urbanization changed the face of America during the latter half of the Nineteenth century, and its newspapers entered an era known as that of the 'New Journalism. John Hohenberg, in ''The Professional Journalist'' (1960), called the interpretive reporting which developed after World War II a "new journalism which not only seeks to explain as well as to inform; it even dares to teach, to measure, to evaluate."
During the 1960s and 1970s, the term enjoyed widespread popularity, often with meanings bearing manifestly little or no connection with one another. Although James E. Murphy noted that "...most uses of the term seem to refer to something no more specific than vague new directions in journalism", Curtis D. MacDougal devoted the preface of the sixth edition of his ''Interpretative Reporting'' to New Journalism and cataloged many of the contemporary definitions: "Activist, advocacy, participatory, tell-it-as-you-see-it, sensitivity, investigative, saturation, humanistic, reformist and a few more."
''The Magic Writing Machine—Student Probes of the New Journalism'', a collection edited and introduced by Everette E. Dennis, came up with six categories, labelled new nonfiction (reportage), alternative journalism ("modern muckraking"), advocacy journalism, underground journalism and precision journalism. Michael Johnson's ''The New Journalism'' addresses itself to three phenomena: the underground press, the artists of nonfiction, and changes in the established media.
First usage
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lite ...
is credited with coining the term "New Journalism" in 1887,
which went on to define an entire genre of newspaper history, particularly
Lord Northcliffe's turn-of-the-century press empire. However, at the time, the target of Arnold's irritation was not Northcliffe, but the sensational journalism of
''Pall Mall Gazette'' editor
W.T. Stead.
He strongly disapproved of the
muck-raking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
Stead, and declared that, under this editor, "the P.M.G., whatever may be its merits, is fast ceasing to be literature." Stead himself called his brand of journalism '
Government by Journalism'.
Early development, 1960s
How and when the term New Journalism began to refer to a genre is not clear.
[ ]Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
, a practitioner and principal advocate of the form,[ wrote in at least two articles][The Birth of 'The New Journalism'; Eyewitness Report by Tom Wolfe]
, ''New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'', February 14, 1972. p. 45["Why They Aren't Writing the Great American Novel Anymore", ''Esquire'', December 1972, p. 152.] in 1972 that he had no idea of where it began. Trying to shed light on the matter, literary critic Seymour Krim offered his explanation in 1973.
I'm certain that Hamill">eteHamill first used the expression. In about April of 1965 he called me at ''Nugget'' Magazine, where I was editorial director, and told me he wanted to write an article about new New Journalism. It was to be about the exciting things being done in the old reporting genre by Talese, Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
. He never wrote the piece, so far as I know, but I began using the expression in conversation and writing. It was picked up and stuck.
But wherever and whenever the term arose, there is evidence of some literary experimentation in the early 1960s, as when Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
broke away from fiction to write "Superman Comes to the Supermarket
"Superman Comes to the Supermarket" is an essay by the American novelist and journalist Norman Mailer about the 1960 Democratic convention. Originally published in ''Esquire'' as "Superman Comes to the Supermart," this essay was Mailer's initial ...
". A report of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
's nomination
Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list.
Political office
In the ...
that year, the piece established a precedent which Mailer would later build on in his 1968 convention coverage (''Miami and the Siege of Chicago
''Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968'' is a non-fiction novel written by Norman Mailer which covers the Republican and Democratic national party political conventions of 19 ...
'') and in other nonfiction as well.
Wolfe wrote that his first acquaintance with a new style of reporting came in a 1962 ''Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' article about Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He rei ...
by Gay Talese
Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with ...
. Joe Louis at Fifty' wasn't like a magazine article at all. It was like a short story. It began with a scene, an intimate confrontation between Louis and his third wife..."[Wolfe. "The New Journalism" ''Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors''. September, 1970.] Wolfe said Talese was the first to apply fiction techniques to reporting. ''Esquire'' claimed credit as the seedbed for these new techniques. ''Esquire'' editor Harold Hayes
Harold Thomas Pace Hayes (April 18, 1926 – April 5, 1989), editor of '' Esquire'' magazine from 1963 to 1973, was a main architect of the New Journalism movement.
Biography
Born April 18, 1926, in Elkin, North Carolina, Harold Hayes earned an u ...
later wrote that "in the Sixties, events seemed to move too swiftly to allow the osmotic process of art to keep abreast, and when we found a good novelist we immediately sought to seduce him with the sweet mysteries of current events." Soon others, notably ''New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'', followed ''Esquire''s lead, and the style eventually infected other magazines and then books.
1970s
Much of the criticism favorable to this New Journalism came from the writers themselves. Talese and Wolfe, in a panel discussion cited earlier, asserted that, although what they wrote may look like fiction, it was indeed reporting: "Fact reporting, leg work", Talese called it.[
Wolfe, in ''Esquire'' for December, 1972, hailed the replacement of the novel by the New Journalism as literature's "main event" and detailed the points of similarity and contrast between the New Journalism and the novel. The four techniques of realism that he and the other New Journalists employed, he wrote, had been the sole province of novelists and other ''literati''. They are scene-by-scene construction, full record of dialogue, third-person point of view and the manifold incidental details to round out character (i.e., descriptive incidentals). The result:
]... is a form that is not merely like a ''novel''. It consumes devices that happen to have originated with the novel and mixes them with every other device known to prose. And all the while, quite beyond matters of technique, it enjoys an advantage so obvious, so built-in, one almost forgets what power it has: the simple fact that the reader knows ''all this actually happened''. The disclaimers have been erased. The screen is gone. The writer is one step closer to the absolute involvement of the reader that Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
and James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
dreamed of but never achieved.
The essential difference between the new nonfiction and conventional reporting is, he said, that the basic unit of reporting was no longer the datum or piece of information but the scene. Scene is what underlies "the sophisticated strategies of prose".
The first of the new breed of nonfiction writers to receive wide notoriety was Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
,[Murphy 1974, p. 7.] whose 1965 best-seller, ''In Cold Blood
''In Cold Blood'' is a non-fiction novel by American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966. It details the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.
Capote learned of the qua ...
'', was a detailed narrative of the murder of a Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
farm family. Capote culled material from some 6,000 pages of notes.[ The book brought its author instant celebrity. Capote announced that he had created a new art form which he labelled the "nonfiction novel".][
]I've always had the theory that reportage is the great unexplored art form... I've had this theory that a factual piece of work could explore whole new dimensions in writing that would have a double effect fiction does not have—the very fact of its being true, every word of it's true, would add a double contribution of strength and impact
Capote continued to stress that he was a literary artist, not a journalist, but critics hailed the book as a classic example of New Journalism.[
Wolfe's '']The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby'' is the title of Tom Wolfe's first collected book of essays, published in 1965. The book is named for one of the stories in the collection that was originally published in ''Esquire magazine'' i ...
'', whose introduction and title story, according to James E. Murphy, "emerged as a manifesto of sorts for the nonfiction genre,"[ was published the same year. In his introduction, Wolfe wrote that he encountered trouble fashioning an ''Esquire'' article out of material on a custom car extravaganza in Los Angeles, in 1963. Finding he could not do justice to the subject in magazine article format, he wrote a letter to his editor, Byron Dobell, which grew into a 49-page report detailing the custom car world, complete with scene construction, dialogue and flamboyant description. ''Esquire'' ran the letter, striking out "Dear Byron." and it became Wolfe's maiden effort as a New Journalist.][
In an article entitled "The Personal Voice and the Impersonal Eye", ]Dan Wakefield
Dan Wakefield (born May 21, 1932) is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter.
His best-selling novels, ''Going All the Way'' (1970) and ''Starting Over'' (1973), were made into feature films.
He wrote the screenplay for ''Going All th ...
acclaimed the nonfiction of Capote and Wolfe as elevating reporting to the level of literature, terming that work and some of Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
's nonfiction a journalistic breakthrough: reporting "charged with the energy of art".[Dan Wakefield, "The Personal Voice and the Impersonal Eye", ''The Atlantic'', June, 1966, pp. 86–89.] A review by Jack Newfield
Jack Abraham Newfield (February 18, 1938 – December 21, 2004) was an American journalist, columnist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. Newfield wrote for the ''Village Voice'', ''New York Daily News'', ''New York Post'', ''New Y ...
of Dick Schaap
Richard Jay Schaap (September 27, 1934 – December 21, 2001) was an American sportswriter, broadcaster, and author.
Early life and education
Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, and raised in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, Schaap began writ ...
's ''Turned On'' saw the book as a good example of budding tradition in American journalism which rejected many of the constraints of conventional reporting:
This new genre defines itself by claiming many of the techniques that were once the unchallenged terrain of the novelist: tension, symbol, cadence, irony, prosody, imagination.[Jack Newfield, "Hooked and Dead", ''The New York Times Book Review'', May 7, 1967, p. 20.]
A 1968 review of Wolfe's ''The Pump House Gang
''The Pump House Gang'' is a 1968 collection of essays and journalism by Tom Wolfe. The stories in the book explored various aspects of the counterculture of the 1960s. The most famous story in the collection, from which the book takes its nam ...
'' and ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' is a 1968 nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe. The book is a popular example of the New Journalism literary style. Wolfe presents a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, ...
'' said Wolfe and Mailer were applying "the imaginative resources of fiction" to the world around them and termed such creative journalism "hystory" to connote their involvement in what they reported. Talese in 1970, in his Author's Note to '' Fame and Obscurity'', a collection of his pieces from the 1960s, wrote:
The new journalism, though often reading like fiction, is not fiction. It is, or should be, as reliable as the most reliable reportage although it seeks a larger truth than is possible through the mere compilation of verifiable facts, the use of direct quotations, and adherence to the rigid organizational style of the older form.
Seymour Krim's ''Shake It for the World, Smartass'', which appeared in 1970, contained "An Open Letter to Norman Mailer" which defined New Journalism as "a free nonfictional prose that uses every resource of the best fiction." In "The Newspaper As Literature/Literature As Leadership", he called journalism "the ''de facto'' literature" of the majority, a synthesis of journalism and literature that the book's postscript called "journalit". In 1972, in "An Enemy of the Novel", Krim identified his own fictional roots and declared that the needs of the time compelled him to move beyond fiction to a more "direct" communication to which he promised to bring all of fiction's resources.
David McHam, in an article titled "The Authentic New Journalists", distinguished the nonfiction reportage of Capote, Wolfe and others from other, more generic interpretations of New Journalism. Also in 1971, William L. Rivers disparaged the former and embraced the latter, concluding, "In some hands, they add a flavor and a humanity to journalistic writing that push it into the realm of art." Charles Brown in 1972 reviewed much that had been written as New Journalism and about New Journalism by Capote, Wolfe, Mailer and others and labelled the genre "New Art Journalism", which allowed him to test it both as art and as journalism. He concluded that the new literary form was useful only in the hands of literary artists of great talent.
In the first of two pieces by Wolfe in ''New York'' detailing the growth of the new nonfiction and its techniques, Wolfe returned to the fortuitous circumstances surrounding the construction of ''Kandy-Kolored'' and added:
Its virtue was precisely in showing me the possibility of there being something "new" in journalism. What interested me was not simply the discovery that it was possible to write accurate nonfiction with techniques usually associated with novels and short stories. It was that—plus. It was the discovery that it was possible in nonfiction, in journalism, to use any literary device, from the traditional dialogisms of the essay to stream-of-consciousness...
1980s
In the eighties, the use of New Journalism saw a decline, several of the old trailblazers still used fiction techniques in their nonfiction books. However, younger writers in ''Esquire'' and ''Rolling Stone'', where the style had flourished in the two earlier decades, shifted away from the New Journalism. Fiction techniques had not been abandoned by these writers, but they were used sparingly and less flamboyantly.
"Whatever happened to the New Journalism?" wondered Thomas Powers
Thomas Powers (born December 12, 1940 in New York City) is an American author and intelligence expert.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971 together with Lucinda Franks for his articles on Weatherman member Diana Ou ...
in a 1975 issue of ''Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
''. In 1981, Joe Nocera
Joseph Nocera (born May 6, 1952) is an American business journalist, and author. He has written for The New York Times since April 2005, writing for the Op-Ed page from 2011 to 2015. He was also an opinion columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.
Early ...
published a postmortem in ''Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
'' blaming its demise on the journalistic liberties taken by Hunter S. Thompson. Regardless of the culprit, less than a decade after Wolfe's 1973 New Journalism anthology, the consensus was that New Journalism was dead.
Characteristics
As a literary genre, New Journalism has certain technical characteristics. It is an artistic, creative, literary reporting form with three basic traits: dramatic literary techniques; intensive reporting; and reporting of generally acknowledged subjectivity.[
]
As subjective journalism
Pervading many of the specific interpretations of New Journalism is a posture of subjectivity. Subjectivism is thus a common element among many (though not all) of its definitions.[Murphy 1974, p. 3.] In contrast to a conventional journalistic striving for an objectivity, subjective journalism allows for the writer's opinion, ideas or involvement to creep into the story.
Much of the critical literature concerns itself with a strain of subjectivism which may be called activism in news reporting.[ In 1970, Gerald Grant wrote disparagingly in '']Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'' of a "New Journalism of passion and advocacy" and in the '' Saturday Review'' Hohenberg discussed "The Journalist As Missionary" For Masterson in 1971, "The New Journalism" provided a forum for discussion of journalistic and social activism. In another 1971 article under the same title, Ridgeway called the counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
magazines such as ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' and '' Ramparts'' and the American underground press New Journalism.
Another version of subjectivism in reporting is what is sometimes called participatory reporting. Robert Stein, in ''Media Power'', defines New Journalism as "A form of participatory reporting that evolved in parallel with participatory politics
Stephen Rosskamm Shalom is a professor of political science at William Paterson University where he has taught since 1977. He is a writer on social and political issues and is a contributor to Znet and '' Democratic Left''. He is on the editorial ...
..."
As form and technique
The above interpretations of New Journalism view it as an attitude toward the practice of journalism. But a significant portion of the critical literature deals with form and technique.[Murphy 1974, p. 4.] Critical comment dealing with New Journalism as a literary-journalistic genre (a distinct type of category of literary work grouped according to similar and technical characteristics) treats it as the '' new nonfiction''. Its traits are extracted from the criticism written by those who claim to practice it and by others.[ Admittedly it is hard to isolate from a number of the more generic meanings.
The new nonfiction were sometimes taken for advocacy of subjective journalism.][ A 1972 article by Dennis Chase defines New Journalism as a subjective journalism emphasizing "truth" over "facts" but uses major nonfiction stylists as its example.
]
As intensive reportage
Although much of the critical literature discussed the use of literary or fictional techniques as the basis for a New Journalism, critics also referred to the form as stemming from intensive reporting. Stein, for instance, found the key to New Journalism not its fictionlike form but the "saturation
Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to:
Chemistry
* Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds
**Saturated and unsaturated compounds
** Degree of unsaturation
**Saturated fat or fatty aci ...
reporting" which precedes it, the result of the writer's immersion in his subject. Consequently, Stein concluded, the writer is as much part of his story as is the subject and he thus linked saturation reporting with subjectivity. For him, New Journalism is inconsistent with objectivity or accuracy.
However, others have argued that total immersion enhances accuracy. As Wolfe put the case:
I am the first to agree that the New Journalism should be as accurate as traditional journalism. In fact my claims for the New Journalism, and my demands upon it, go far beyond that. I contend that it has already proven itself ''more'' accurate than traditional journalism—which unfortunately is saying but so much...
Wolfe coined "saturation reporting" in his '' Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors'' article. After citing the opening paragraphs of Talese's Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He rei ...
piece, he confessed believing that Talese had "piped" or faked the story, only later to be convinced, after learning that Talese so deeply delved into the subject, that he could report entire scenes and dialogues.
The basic units of reporting are no longer who-what-when-where-how and why but whole scenes and stretches of dialogue. The New Journalism involves a depth of reporting and an attention to the most minute facts and details that most newspapermen, even the most experienced, have never dreamed of.
In his "Birth of the New Journalism" in ''New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'', Wolfe returned to the subject, which he here described as a depth of information never before demanded in newspaper work. The New Journalist, he said, must stay with his subject for days and weeks at a stretch.[ In Wolfe's ''Esquire'' piece, saturation became the "Locker Room Genre" of intensive digging into the lives and personalities of one's subject, in contrast to the aloof and genteel tradition of the essayists and "The Literary Gentlemen in the Grandstand".][
For Talese, intensive reportage took the form of interior monologue to discover from his subjects what they were thinking, not, he said in a panel discussion reported in '']Writer's Digest
''Writer's Digest'' is an American magazine aimed at beginning and established writers. It contains interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles.
History
''Writer's Digest'' was first published in December 1920 under ...
'', merely reporting what people did and said.[Hayes, Gay Talese and Wolfe, with Leonard W. Robinson, "The New Journalism." '']Writer's Digest
''Writer's Digest'' is an American magazine aimed at beginning and established writers. It contains interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles.
History
''Writer's Digest'' was first published in December 1920 under ...
''. January, 1970, p. 34.
Wolfe identified the four main devices New Journalists borrowed from literary fiction
Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...
:
* Telling the story using scenes rather than historical narrative as much as possible
* Dialogue in full (conversational speech rather than quotations and statements)
* Point-of-view (present every scene through the eyes of a particular character)
* Recording everyday details such as behavior, possessions, friends and family (which indicate the "status life" of the character)
Despite these elements, New Journalism is not fiction. It maintains elements of reporting including strict adherence to factual accuracy and the writer being the primary source. To get "inside the head" of a character, the journalist asks the subject what they were thinking or how they felt.
Writers and editors
There is little consensus on which writers can be definitively categorized as New Journalists. In ''The New Journalism: A Critical Perspective'', Murphy writes that New Journalism "involves a more or less well defined group of writers," who are "stylistically unique" but share "common formal elements".[Murphy 1974, p. 16.] Among the most prominent New Journalists, Murphy lists: Jimmy Breslin, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, David Halberstam, Pete Hamill, Larry L. King
Larry L. King (January 1, 1929 – December 20, 2012) was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'', which became a long-runni ...
, Norman Mailer, Joe McGinniss
Joseph Ralph McGinniss Sr. (December 9, 1942 – March 10, 2014) was an American non-fiction writer and novelist.
The author of twelve books, he first came to prominence with the best-selling ''The Selling of the President 1968'' which describe ...
, Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for '' The New York Observer''.
Early life
Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wo ...
, Mike Royko, John Sack
John Sack (March 24, 1930 – March 27, 2004) was an American literary journalism, literary journalist and war correspondent. He was the only journalist to cover List of wars involving the United States, each American war over half a century.
B ...
, Dick Schaap, Terry Southern
Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to ...
, Gail Sheehy, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Dan Wakefield and Tom Wolfe.[ In '' The New Journalism'', the editors E.W Johnson and Tom Wolfe, include ]George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...
for ''Paper Lion
''Paper Lion'' is a 1966 non-fiction book by American author George Plimpton.
In 1960, Plimpton, not an athlete, arranged to pitch to a lineup of professional baseball players in an All-Star exhibition, presumably to answer the question, "How ...
'', ''Life'' writer James Mills and Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
, et cetera, in the corps. Christgau, however, stated in a 2001 interview that he does not see himself as a New Journalist.
The editors Clay Felker, Normand Poirier and Harold Hayes also contributed to the rise of New Journalism.
Criticism
While many praised the New Journalist's style of writing, Wolfe et al., also received severe criticism from contemporary journalists and writers. Essentially two different charges were leveled against New Journalism: criticism against it as a ''distinct genre'' and criticism against it as a ''new'' form.
Robert Stein believed that "In the New Journalism the eye of the beholder is all—or almost all," and in 1971 Philip M. Howard, wrote that the new nonfiction writers rejected objectivity in favor of a more personal, subjective reportage. This parallels much of what Wakefield said in his 1966 ''Atlantic'' article.
The important and interesting and hopeful trend to me in the new journalism is its personal nature—not in the sense of personal attacks, but in the presence of the reporter himself and the significance of his own involvement. This is sometimes felt to be egotistical, and the frank identification of the author, especially as the "I" instead of merely the impersonal "eye" is often frowned upon and taken as proof of "subjectivity", which is the opposite of the usual journalistic pretense.
And in spite of the fact that Capote believed in the objective accuracy of ''In Cold Blood'' and strove to keep himself totally out of the narrative, one reviewer found in the book the "tendency among writers to resort to subjective sociology, on the other hand, or to super-creative reportage, on the other." Charles Self termed this characteristic of New Journalism as "admitted" subjectivity, whether first-person or third-person, and acknowledged the subjectivity inherent in his account.
Lester Markel polemically criticized New Journalism in the '' Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors'', he rejected the claim to greater in-depth reporting and labelled the writers "factual fictionists" and "deep-see reporters". He feared they were performing as sociologists and psychoanalysts rather than as journalists. The lack of source footnotes and bibliographies in most works of New Journalism is often cited by critics as showing a lack of intellectual rigor, verifiability, and even author laziness and sloppiness.
More reasoned, though still essentially negative, Arlen in his 1972 "Notes on the New Journalism", put the New Journalism into a larger socio-historical perspective by tracing the techniques from earlier writers and from the constraints and opportunities of the current age. But much of the more routine New Journalism "consists in exercises by writer ... in gripping and controlling and confronting a subject within the journalist's own temperament. Presumably," he wrote, "this is the 'novelistic technique.[Michael J. Arlen, "Notes on the New Journalism", ''The Atlantic'', May 1972, p. 47.] However, he conceded that the best of this work had "considerably expanded the possibilities of journalism".[
Much negative criticism of New Journalism were directed at individual writers.][Murphy 1974, p. 14.] For example, Cynthia Ozick asserted in ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', that Capote in ''In Cold Blood'' was doing little more than trying to devise a form: "One more esthetic manipulation." Sheed offered, in "A Fun-House Mirror", a witty refutation of Wolfe's claim that he takes on the expression and the guise of whomever he is writing about. "The Truman Capotes may hold up a tolerably clear glass to nature," he wrote, "but Wolfe holds up a fun-house mirror, and I for one don't give a hoot whether he calls the reflection fact or fiction."
"Parajournalism" and the ''New Yorker'' affair
Among the hostile critics of the New Journalism were Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist maga ...
, whose most vocal criticism comprised a chapter in what became known as "the ''New Yorker'' affair" of 1965. Wolfe had written a two-part semi-fictional parody in ''New York'' of ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and its editor, William Shawn
William Shawn ('' né'' Chon; August 31, 1907 – December 8, 1992) was an American magazine editor who edited ''The New Yorker'' from 1952 until 1987.
Early life and education
Shawn was born William Chon on August 31, 1907, in Chicago, Illino ...
. Reaction, notably from ''New Yorker'' writers, was loud and prolonged, but the most significant reaction came from Macdonald, who counterattacked in two articles in ''The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
''.[Dwight Macdonald. "Parajournalism, or Tom Wolfe and His Magic Writing Machine", '']The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', August 26, 1965, pp. 3–5["Parajournalism II: Wolfe and ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Review of Books'', February 3, 1966, pp. 18–24.] In the first, Macdonald termed Wolfe's approach "parajournalism" and applied it to all similar styles. "Parajournalism", Macdonald wrote,
... seems to be journalism—"the collection and dissemination of current news"—but the appearance is deceptive. It is a bastard form, having it both ways, exploiting the factual authority of journalism and the atmospheric license of fiction.
The ''New Yorker'' parody, he added, "... revealed the ugly side of Parajournalism when it tries to be serious."[
In his second article, MacDonald addressed himself to the accuracy of Wolfe's report. He charged that Wolfe "takes a middle course, shifting gears between fact and fantasy, spoof and reportage, until nobody knows which end is, at the moment, up".][ ''New Yorker'' writers ]Renata Adler
Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...
and Gerald Jonas joined the fray in the Winter 1966 issue of ''Columbia Journalism Review''.
Wolfe himself returned to the affair a full seven years later, devoting the second of his two February ''New York'' articles[''New York'', February 21, 1972, pp. 39–48] (1972) to his detractors but not to dispute their attack on his factual accuracy. He argued that most of the contentions arose because for traditional ''literati'' nonfiction should not succeed—which his nonfiction obviously had.[
]
Gail Sheehy and "Redpants"
In ''The New Journalism: A Critical Perspective'', Murphy writes, "Partly because Wolfe took liberties with the facts in his ''New Yorker'' parody, New Journalism began to get a reputation for juggling the facts in the search for truth, fictionalizing some details to get a larger 'reality.[Murphy 1974, p. 13.] Widely criticized was the technique of the composite character,[ the most notorious example of which was "Redpants", a presumed prostitute whom ]Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy (born Gail Henion; November 27, 1936 – August 24, 2020) was an American author, journalist, and lecturer. She was the author of seventeen books and numerous high-profile articles for magazines such as ''New York'' and ''Vanity ...
wrote about in ''New York'' in a series on that city's sexual subculture. When it later became known that the character was distilled from a number of prostitutes, there was an outcry against Sheehy's method and, by extension, to the credibility of all of New Journalism.[ In the '']Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', one critic wrote:
It's all part of the New Journalism, or the Now Journalism, and it's practiced widely these days. Some editors and reporters vigorously defend it. Others just as vigorously attack it. No one has polled the reader, but whether he approves or disapproves, it's getting harder and harder for him to know what he can believe.
''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' reported that critics felt Sheehy's energies were better suited to fiction than fact. John Tebbel, in an article in ''Saturday Review'', although treating New Journalism in its more generic sense as new a trend, chided it for the fictional technique of narrative leads which the new nonfiction writers had introduced into journalism and deplored its use in newspapers.
Criticism against New Journalism as a distinct genre
Newfield, in 1972, changed his attitude following his earlier, 1967,[ review of Wolfe. "New Journalism does not exist", the later article titled "Is there a 'new journalism'?"][Jack Newfield, ''Columbia Journalism Review'', July–August, 1972, pp. 45–47.] says. "It is a false category. There is only good writing and bad writing, smart ideas and dumb ideas, hard work and laziness."[ While the practice of journalism had improved during the past fifteen years, he argued, it was because of an influx of good writers notable for unique styles, not because they belonged to any school or movement.][
]Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
, who is often labelled a New Journalist, took the same view: "Believe me, there is no new journalism. It is a gimmick to say there is ... Story telling is older than the alphabet and that is what it is all about."[In a personal letter to Philip Howard, quoted on Howard's p. 9.]
See also
*Creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction or literary journalism or verfabula) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contra ...
*Embedded journalism
Embedded journalism refers to news journalist, reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be u ...
* Gonzo journalism
*Immersion journalism
Immersion journalism or immersionism is a style of journalism similar to gonzo journalism. In the style, journalists immerse themselves in a situation and with the people involved. The final product tends to focus on the experience, not the writ ...
*New Games Journalism
Video game journalism is a branch of journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of video games, typically based on a core "reveal–preview–review" cycle. With the prevalence and rise of independent media online, online publicat ...
*'' The New Journalism''
*Nonfiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwi ...
*Reportage
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
References and notes
Citations
Explanatory notes
The article Wolfe referred to was actually titled "Joe Louis—the King as a Middle-Aged Man", ''Esquire'', June, 1962.
Wolfe's letter had the original title ''There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm)...''. The title was later contracted to ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby'' is the title of Tom Wolfe's first collected book of essays, published in 1965. The book is named for one of the stories in the collection that was originally published in ''Esquire magazine'' i ...
'', which became the title of the book, published in 1965.
For example, J.D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...
wrote to Jock Whitney
John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the ''New York Herald Tribune'', and president of the Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Whitney family.
Early life
Whit ...
"With the printing of the inaccurate and sub-collegiate and gleeful and unrelievedly poisonous article on William Shawn, the name of the Herald Tribune, and certainly your own will very likely never again stand for anything either respect-worthy or honorable." E. B. White
Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including ''Stuart Little'' (1945), ''Charlotte's Web'' (1952), and '' The Trumpet of the Swan'' ...
's letter to Whitney, dated "April 1965," contains the following passage: "Tom Wolfe's piece on William Shawn violated every rule of conduct I know anything about. It is sly, cruel, and to a large extent undocumented, and it has, I think, shocked everyone who knows what sort of person Shawn really is .." and Shawn's hand-delivered letter to Whitney, sent Thursday before publication on April 11, 1965, read "To be technical for a moment, I think that Tom Wolfe's article on The New Yorker is false and libelous. But I'd rather not be technical ... I cannot believe that, as a man of known integrity and responsibility, you will allow it to reach your readers ... The question is whether you will stop the distribution of that issue of New York. I urge you to do so, for the sake of The New Yorker and for the sake of the Herald Tribune. In fact, I am convinced that the publication of that article will hurt you more than it will hurt me ...". Bellows 2002, pp. 3–4.
General bibliography
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"Of honest men & good writers"
Jack Newfield
Jack Abraham Newfield (February 18, 1938 – December 21, 2004) was an American journalist, columnist, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. Newfield wrote for the ''Village Voice'', ''New York Daily News'', ''New York Post'', ''New Y ...
making the case against New Journalism as a distinct genre in a ''Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' article published on May 18, 1972
External links
*
Chart – Real and Fake News (2016)/Vanessa Otero
basis
Chart – Real and Fake News (2014)
2016
/Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
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Newswriting
Types of journalism