The New Journalism is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by
Tom WolfeThomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. , known as Tom Wolfe, is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
and EW Johnson. The book is both a
manifestoA manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. However, manifestos relating to religious belief are rather referred to as credo. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of
New JournalismNew Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
by American writers, covering a variety of subjects from the frivolous (baton twirling competitions) to the deadly serious (the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
). The pieces are notable because they do not conform to the standard
dispassionate and even-handedObjectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. Journalistic objectivity can refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship, but most often encompasses all of these qualities.- Definitions :...
model of
journalismJournalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone...
.
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The New Journalism is a 1973 anthology of journalism edited by
Tom WolfeThomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. , known as Tom Wolfe, is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
and EW Johnson. The book is both a
manifestoA manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. However, manifestos relating to religious belief are rather referred to as credo. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
for a new type of journalism by Wolfe, and a collection of examples of
New JournalismNew Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
by American writers, covering a variety of subjects from the frivolous (baton twirling competitions) to the deadly serious (the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
). The pieces are notable because they do not conform to the standard
dispassionate and even-handedObjectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. Journalistic objectivity can refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship, but most often encompasses all of these qualities.- Definitions :...
model of
journalismJournalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone...
. Rather they incorporate
literary devicesA literary technique or literary device is an identifiable rule of thumb, convention or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling....
usually only found in fictional works.
Manifesto
The first section of the book is a diatribe against the American novel which Wolfe sees as having hit a dead end by moving away from realism, and his opinion that journalism is much more relevant. In effect, his manifesto is for mixing journalism with literary techniques to document in a more effective way than the novel. These techniques were most likely inspired by writers of social realism, such as
Émile ZolaÉmile François Zola was an influential French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused...
and
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
. His manifesto for New Journalism (although he had no great affection for the term) has four main points.
- Scene by scene construction. Rather than rely on second-hand accounts and background information, Wolfe considers it necessary for the journalist to witness events first hand, and to recreate them for the reader.
- Dialogue. By recording dialogue as fully as possible, the journalist is not only reporting words, but defining and establishing character, as well as involving the reader.
- The third person. Instead of simply reporting the facts, the journalist has to give the reader a real feeling of the events and people involved. One technique for achieving this is to treat the protagonists like characters in a novel. What is their motivation? What are they thinking?
- Status details. Just as important as the characters and the events, are the surroundings, specifically what people surround themselves with. Wolfe describes these items as the tools for a "social autopsy", so we can see people as they see themselves
Contributors
- Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote , born Truman Streckfus Persons, was an American writer, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel"...
- excerpt from In Cold BloodIn Cold Blood is a 1966 book by American author Truman Capote.The book details the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, and his wife and two of their children. When Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to...
.
- Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-professed "Dean of American Rock Critics". In print, he often abbreviates his name as Xgau....
- Beth Ann and Macrobioticism.
- Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known as a novelist and writer of personalized, journalistic essays. The disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos upon which her essays comment are explored more fully in her novels, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
- Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream.
- John Gregory Dunne
John Gregory Dunne was an American novelist, screenwriter and literary critic.He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and was a younger brother of author Dominick Dunne. He suffered from a severe stutter and took up writing to express himself. Eventually he learned to speak normally by observing...
- excerpt from The Studio.
- Joe Eszterhas
József "Joe" Eszterhas is a Hungarian-American writer, best known for his work on the pulp erotic films Basic Instinct and Showgirls...
- Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse.
- Barbara L Goldsmith - La Dolce Viva.
- Richard Goldstein
*Richard Goldstein , former editor and writer for The New York Times who has written books on sporting and historical topics*Richard Goldstein , former writer for the Village Voice who has written books on music, gay and lesbian issues, and counterculture...
- Gear.
- Michael Herr
Michael Herr is a writer and former war correspondent, best known as the author of Dispatches , a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War...
- Khesanh.
- Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
- excerpt from The Armies of the Night.
- Joe McGinniss
Joe McGinniss is an American author of true crime and non-fiction novels.-Biography:McGinniss graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1964 and became a general assignment reporter at the Worcester Telegram in Worcester, MA. Within a year he left to become a sportswriter for The...
- excerpt from The Selling of the President.
- James Mills
James Thomas Mills was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1963 to 1966....
- The Detective.
- George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is best-remembered for his sports writing and for founding The Paris Review.- Biography :...
- Paper Lion.
- Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.-Life & work:...
- Do You Sleep In The Nude?
- "Adam Smith"
George Jerome Waldo Goodman , is an American economist, author, and broadcast economics commentator, best known by his pseudonym Adam Smith . He also writes fiction under the name "George Goodman."-Background, education, and career:Goodman was born in St...
- John Sack
John Sack was an American literary journalist. He was the only journalist to cover each American war over half a century.He was born to a Jewish family on March 24, 1930, in New York City. His work appeared in such periodicals as Harper's, The Atlantic, Esquire and The New Yorker...
- M.
- Terry Southern
Terry Southern was a highly influential American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for a distinctive satirical style...
- Twirling at Ole Miss.
- Gay Talese
Gay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism or "new nonfiction reportage", also known as New Journalism...
- Joe Louis: The King as a Middle-aged Man.
- Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of...
- excerpt from Hell's Angels and The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" is a seminal sports article by Hunter S. Thompson on the 1970 Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky, Thompson's home town, that first appeared in an issue of Scanlan's Monthly magazine in June of that year...
.
- Nicholas Tomalin
Nicholas Osborne Tomalin was an English journalist and writer.Tomalin was the son of Miles Tomalin, a Communist poet and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. He studied English literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a student he was President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the prestigious...
- The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong.
- Garry Wills
Garry Wills is a prolific author, journalist, and historian specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at Jesuit schools, he is proficient in Greek and Latin, but not Hebrew...
- Martin Luther King is Still on the Case.
- Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. , known as Tom Wolfe, is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
- excerpt from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid TestThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe, published in 1968. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, the novel tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters...
and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak CatchersRadical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers was a 1970 book by Tom Wolfe. The book, Wolfe's fourth, is composed of two articles by Wolfe, "These Radical Chic Evenings," first published in June of 1970 in New York magazine, about a gathering Leonard Bernstein held for the Black Panther Party and...
.