New Journalism was a movement that was prominent throughout America during the 1960's and 70's where the country was enthralled in the changes in social and political rebellion. It was during a time where the American were engulfed in the only war that could be classed as a defeat in Vietnam and where the country was embraced in the mentality of free love and freedom brought upon by the hippies movement.
Journalism was also changing from the period where William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer changes the face of Journalism from the world of "Yellow Journalism" and was moving away from stories that would follows the basic new writing narrative rule of the 5 W's (who, what, why, where and when) and the man who epitomised these changes was Tom Wolfe.
Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia on March 2 1931 and throughout his youth was interested in journalism from a young age and went onto graduate with a doctrine in American Studies from Yale University. Wolfe decided that he wanted to follow his passion of Journalism into his vocation and moved to New York to work on the Herald Tribune and this is where he would form the foundation of The New Journalism.
New Journalism would blur the line between fiction and non-fiction as Wolfe felt that the novel was in steep decline due to the affect of realism on society and that the novel was practically dead and buried.This would reflect in a quote from Christopher Hitchens who felt that "Everyone has a book inside them."
In Wolfe's book The New Journalism on pages 46 and 47 he describes the four main characteristics that are needed to make the perfect feature piece. Each of these four elements are vital to not just a feature piece, but also a news package that is seen on a weekly basis on WINOL as you have to ensure that the story is about people doing things or being affected by something:
1. Scene by scene construction: Wolfe simply believes that you tell the story as you see it scene by scene to ensure that every details is captured and that you do not try and go down the historical narrative route.
2. Dialogue: Dialogue will help construct the story with help from the characters and how they speak and what they say. This will define and establish your characters and through subjectivity will see the true realism of their character. Regional accents can be key during dialogue as it can also establish the time period or the setting of the piece as well as the characters you are trying to show.
3. 3rd Persons Point of View: This again is key in establishing and defining a character through realism will give a perfection form of fiction. Observing the story from the character point of view and using subjectivity to show how the subject is the focus point of the story. Within a new package or a feature this is where the interview is key as if you can exploit and show an interviewee's true emotion and feelings you can use this as a tool to entice the reader in and play with their emotions to evoke a reaction from them.
4. Status Details: The surroundings of which the characters will take place in. For journalist status details and settings are the perfect tool for a social autopsy as you can see people as they are within themselves from their natural surroundings. This will also help the readers with the descriptions of the setting and paints a picture of the characters.
Wolfe felt that the best examples of New Journalism was in action and emotions drawing the thoughts and feelings of people and the people who knew them. This is where the first breed of new journalists came into spotlight with Truman Capote and his famous work "In Cold Blood" where these emotions and the point of view of the third person is exemplified.
Other example of New Journalism include Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of Gonzo Journalism, which will see people take an active role of what they want to find out. This form of journalism is the closest you will find to a novel where the narrative and creative elements of the piece will explore different topics than in standard journalism.
The example of this is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Thompson portrays himself as a Raoul Drake and alongside his Samoan sidekick Dr Gonzo embarks on a drug-fulled trip to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle desert race. The two main characters throughout the trip take copious amounts of alcohol and drugs to escape reality
Journalism has moved on from objectivity to subjectivity, from seeing to telling and from the journalist would take a back seat and write down everything he saw, they would take a greater role into their story and would sometime go far as they would become the story themselves without realising it. This new role of performance journalism is epitomised in the role of Michael Moore and even though most people hate the man to the point where you want to point a gun to his head, you can not underestimate his influence where he has taken new journalism to a new level where the story is more stressed on the dialogue and the point of view of the characters now more than ever.
With every new packages you have to find a story and then stand it up. In Journalism up to the present day it is evident that to stand the story out you need to combine the objectivity of the fact of the story with the subjectivity of the people who are affected and obtained the verbal (quote) and non-verbal (emotions/gestures) needed to establish a story that will interest your viewer. This is what shows that Tom Wolfe's form of New Journalism is still relevant and being updated 40 years later.
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