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New Journalism is a style of
news writing News style, journalistic style, or news-writing style is the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television. News writing attempts to answer all the basic questions about any particular event—who, what, w ...
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 (p ...
, 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 in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as ''
The New Journalism ''The New Journalism'' is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. The book is both a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a var ...
'', 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, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, Terry Southern,
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 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'', ''
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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', 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 ultimat ...
''. 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, for instance, in his ''Natural History of the Newspaper'', referred to the advent of the penny press in the 1830s as "new journalism". Likewise, the appearance of the yellow press—papers such as Joseph Pulitzer'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 pub ...
'' 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 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 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, a practitioner and principal advocate of the form, wrote in at least two articlesThe Birth of 'The New Journalism'; Eyewitness Report by Tom Wolfe
, '' New York'', 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 Seymour Krim (May 11, 1922 – August 30, 1989) was an American author, editor and literary critic. He is often categorized with the writers of the Beat Generation. He wrote for the ''Village Voice'', ''Playboy'', ''New York Element'' and ''Inter ...
offered his explanation in 1973.
I'm certain that 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. 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 broke away from fiction to write " Superman Comes to the Supermarket". A report of John F. Kennedy's nomination that year, the piece established a precedent which Mailer would later build on in his 1968 convention coverage ('' Miami and the Siege of Chicago'') 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 re ...
by Gay Talese. 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 un ...
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'', 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 Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...
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 qu ...
'', was a detailed narrative of the murder of a
Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...
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 acclaimed the nonfiction of Capote and Wolfe as elevating reporting to the level of literature, terming that work and some of Norman 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 of Dick Schaap'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'' and '' The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' 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 Seymour Krim (May 11, 1922 – August 30, 1989) was an American author, editor and literary critic. He is often categorized with the writers of the Beat Generation. He wrote for the ''Village Voice'', ''Playboy'', ''New York Element'' and ''Inter ...
'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 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), an American lay-Catholic-oriented magazin ...
''. In 1981, Joe Nocera 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''. H ...
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 hu ...
'' 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..."


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 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 re ...
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'', 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 un ...
'', 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 un ...
''. January, 1970, p. 34.
Wolfe identified the four main devices New Journalists borrowed from literary fiction: * 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, Rex Reed, Mike Royko,
John Sack John Sack (March 24, 1930 – March 27, 2004) was an American literary journalist and war correspondent. He was the only journalist to cover each American war over half a century. Biography Sack was born in New York City. His work appeared i ...
, Dick Schaap, Terry Southern, Gail Sheehy, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Dan Wakefield and Tom Wolfe. In ''
The New Journalism ''The New Journalism'' is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. The book is both a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a var ...
'', the editors E.W Johnson and Tom Wolfe, include George Plimpton 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 hu ...
'', 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 mag ...
, 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 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 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, 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 contr ...
* Embedded journalism * Gonzo journalism * Immersion journalism * New Games Journalism *''
The New Journalism ''The New Journalism'' is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by Tom Wolfe and E. W. Johnson. The book is both a manifesto for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of New Journalism by American writers, covering a var ...
'' *
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


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 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 W ...
"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'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

* * * * * * * * *) * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * *
"Of honest men & good writers"
Jack Newfield making the case against New Journalism as a distinct genre in a '' Village Voice'' article published on May 18, 1972


External links

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Chart – Real and Fake News (2016)/Vanessa Oterobasis



Chart – Real and Fake News (2014)2016
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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 th ...
{{Portal bar, Current events, Journalism Newswriting Types of journalism