The New Journalism

"When this was first published, news writing was written in a very strict, often quite staid style. New Journalism used a range of literary techniques commonplace in fiction , for example the use of dialogue or first-hand narrative. At that time they were virtually unheard of in news writing. They were writers like Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote … Tom Wolfe wrote an essay laying out this new type of writing at the beginning of his anthology, and the writing he included in the book embodied the style of the movement. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter I don’t know if you’ve read the Tom Wolfe book, but Nicholas Tomalin’s essay “Zap, zap, the general goes killing Viet Cong” is really fantastic. It describes an American general in a helicopter, shouting and smoking and shooting at the enemy. It’s as though you’re right there with him, and this one scene tells you so much about the politics behind the wider war. I used to make a real effort to, about 10 years ago. But now I’m more relaxed. You have to do a huge amount of research to be able to justify writing like this. It puts great emphasis on truthfulness. No – that’s Gonzo Journalism – the style Hunter S Thompson was famous for – he would be dressed as a Hell’s Angel and in the crowd, part of the group starting the riot. New Journalism would involve arriving just after the riot was over, and speaking to members of the crowd, the ambulance crew, all the witnesses – by doing so much research you can recreate the scene, and get inside the head of the people who were involved."