HCJ4: The New Journalism

American Journalism

In the mid 19th century, penny papers were set up as a source of news for people as their desire for news grew. These papers had allegiance to political parties e.g. the papers produced by Horace Greeley, such as The New York Tribune, were linked to the Republican Party.

Objectivity became more important in the mid 1800s and agencies such as Associated Press needed neutrality to be profitable.

The first New Journalism was the Yellow Press in the late 19th century, it was more interesting than previous publications.

Sensationalisation: These new papers used eye catching headlines and pictures to get readers' attention as well as shocking people and causing a stir. A lot of the stories covered were about sin, sex and violence. The modern day equivalent would be tabloid newspapers such as The Sun and Sunday Sport.

America in the 1960s and 70s: There was a great deal of political upheaval - foreign wars and military threats from other countries.


Political and Cultural scene: The 1960s were turbulent, but JFK brought hope to America. That was gone when he was assassinated and when the Vietnam war started.

The Baby Boom after WW2 created a generation of radical young people who had more choice e.g. the pill and drugs.

The prohibition of drugs created subcultures such as hippies and communes. There was the idea that all bad things come from youth (this still exists today!).

Music was central to these youth subcultures - for Satre, Jazz was authentic music. The music of the 60s was an attack on the norms of society e.g. The Doors and Bob Dylan. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron.


Influence of Existentialism

The ideas of Satre and Heidegger influenced a lot of the ideas that young people had, as well as song lyrics. There is no superstructure (social or religious) when you're born, your choices shape your world. The next choice that a person makes is the most important one and could shape their life. According to Fanon, violence is the acceleration of choice.

Are journalists in bad faith when they use press releases and press conferences as bases for stories? Journalists such as Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote sought to gather information differently, they went directly to people, instead of reading a statement that had been put out. They couldn't trust those in power when they were lying and the Police were shooting students.

New Journalism became a subjective experience, rather than objective.

Tom Wolfe

The way he wrote was similar to that of Steinbeck - focussing a lot on simple details and his surroundings. He looked at apparently normal things. He was influenced by Emile Zola.

Feature writing also changed, all details were put on paper.

In New Journalism, Wolfe describes 4 key features that all feature articles should have:

1: Scene by scene construction
2: Capture dialogue
3: Take a 3rd person point of view
4: Record gestures, habits and traits to extreme detail