The New Journalism

American Journalism

- Penny papers - controlled and funded by political parties / businessmen.

- Mid 19th Century - Objectivity became an issue, Associated Press (AP) needed objectivity to be profitable.

- First New Journalism - THE YELLOW PRESS - Late 19th Century

     - Make newspapers less stuffy, more interesting
     - SENSATIONALISATION -  Huge, emotive headlines with big striking pictures, The Sun
     - William Randolph Hearst - NEW YORK JOURNAL
     - Joseph Pulitzer - NEW YORK WORLD
     - Sin, Sex and Violence

- America 60s and 70s - Similar to Hearst. political and social upheaval - fighting foreign wars, military threats coming from abroad.

- The Five W's, News Pyramid etc. Letting language from the events bleed into the copy.

Political and Cultural Scene

- 1960s - JFK embodied the American Dream then got assassinated in 1963, catastrophic war in Vietnam, controversy of the draft (get people in the army), Muhammad Ali refused "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong"

- Demographic reasons - baby booms (spike in populations) hitting teenage life, spurred youth culture, massive generational clash between young people protesting government actions.

- Sexual revolution - the pill, sexual freedom, Reichian free love (Reich - Freud had it wrong, you should let it all hang out and not be depressed, way to happiness is through orgasms)

- The student movement - worldwide protests in 1968

- Civil rights - Black Power

- LSD introduced by the CIA to access the altered thinking of counterculture

- Music - Music of the 60s was attack on the norms, drug fuelled (Doors) and anti-esablisment (Dylan) - political lyrics

- The Revolution Will Not be Televised - Gil Scott Heron (The revolution will be live - the revolution will put you in the driving seat)

- Real world is happening outside not on TV.

Influence of Existentialism

- Heidegger's Authenticity, Satre's Bad Faith - No god, you don't come into a world with meaning, there's great expanses to fill with meaning for yourself, no religious superstructure keeping account of you. Create meaning through your choices and through your actions. If you had an existentialist machine you can put yourself through as a scanner, you wouldn't see yourself or past or future, you'll only see the choices you've made. Most interesting choice you have to make is the next one. Freedom of choice.

- Fanon - Act of violence is an extreme expression of choice. Have to push and use violence to get to the point of freedom quicker. Super-charged choice.

- Malcolm X - Anti-establismen feeling - "there is a policeman in your head - he must be destroyed" - leaked into journalism.

- Journos question whether press releases, official statements and press conferences was really objective and a true reflection of events (Bad Faith)

- Let's try to reflect what's happening in an accurate way - how can you trust organisations? Began focussing on setting, plot, sounds, feelings, quotes and images, while being as true as before.

- Alternative journalism was personal - unconventional, disagreeable, disruptive

Shift in form of narration from DIEGETIC TO MIMETIC

- Telling to seeing

- Marshall McLuhan - Hot Media - Echo, tells the story, no room for interpretation - Cool Media - Interpret yourself

- New Journalism - 'Authority's message' (objectivity) is chucked aside in favour of a subjective experience.

Features

1 - Scene by scene - cinematically, telling story in scenes and not in historical narrative. Need to witness the events

2 - Reflect the realistic dialogue, defines character more quickly and effectively than any other single device.

3 - Third person view - giving the reader the feeling of being inside the character's mind - need to interview them about thoughts and emotions.

4 - recording everyday gestures, habits, manners, customs, styles of furniture, modes of behaviour, towards children, superiors, inferiors and other symbolic details that might exist within a scene. Symbolic of people's status life.