New Journalism

Is impudently virgins media a literary musical style? Analyse with cite to the literary techniques used in ii examples of hot saucys media. Word Count 2231 I suppose the nigh common in narrateect point at which to st device is by defining fresh journalism, or literary journalism, as Eisenhuth and McDonald (2007, p. 38) regulate it is c e actually(prenominal) in alled at the pep pill end of the spectrum. The Collins Concise lexicon (1999, p. 995) defines newborn journalism as a bearing of journalism, using techniques borrowed from legend to deliver a situation of scourt as vividly as practical. Wikipedia (2010) defines it as a style of 1960s and 1970s intelligence service committal to writing and journalism that used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The meaning of new-sprung(prenominal) journalism has evolved over the the past hotshot hundred years or so and has supposedly been coined by galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) a person, in cluding the so-called founding father of brand-new journalism, Matthew Arnold (Roggenkamp, 2005, p. xii) The term, with relevance to the above definitions, was codified with its real meaning by Tom Wolfe in his 1973 collection of modernistic news media phrases,The new(a) Journalism,which included locks by nigh notably himself, Truman capote, Hunter S.Thompson, Norman Mailer, and Joan Didion. With role to the aforementioned youthful Journalists, Tom Wolfe, in a 1972 new York Magazinearticle, state, I know they never dreamed that any(prenominal)thing they were sack to write for newspapers or magazines would wreak much(prenominal)(prenominal) evil havoc in the literary humans causing panic, dethroning the novel as the number one literary genre, starting time the first new direction in Ameri arouse publications in half(prenominal) a century. Nevertheless, that is what has happened. He went on to say that, Bellow, Barth, Updike even the best of the lot,Philip Rot h the novelists be all come to the fore in that location ransacking the literary histories and sweating it out, wondering whither they now tie-up. cursed it all, Saul, theHuns feed arrived. So, this uproar is what begs several questions that these writers felt the need to be answered. Is revolutionary Journalism a literary genre, simply because it utilises the tools of allegory to give it colour? Is it a journalistic genre? Is it a genre all by itself? Imagine journalism and publications both universe a circumstances side by side they stand alone.They ar pushed together when attempting to kick the bucket out the place of New Journalism in the world of writing how far do they convergency? And if, when they meet, there is an even overlap, sure that creates a distinct genre? whatsoever argue that, as well as not being a literary genre, New Journalism is not a stand-alone genre at all. white potato (1974, p. 15) says that, in his eyes, the main charge levelled against New Journalism is censure against it as a distinct genre. Truman hooded cloak seems to disagree with this and says, It seems to me that virtually contemporary novelists are too subjective.I cute to exchange it, creatively speaking, for the everyday im ad hominem world we all inhabit. Reporting can be made as arouse as manu concomitanturing, and done as artistically. (Plimpton, 1967, p. 14) This suggests that capote believes that New Journalism falls on neither side of the fence. Instead, New Journalism is all almost taking journalism with one hand, taking literature with the other, and wrench them both together. He wanted to extend to literature more(prenominal) objective, as journalism is, and he wanted to make journalism more creative, as literature is. Conley (1998, p. ) notes that, Journalism and fiction are not ordinarily mentioned in the identical sentence unless in an unflattering sense, yet they have lots in common. Again, we are directed towards the 2 for ms as separate, but partially overlapped. Weiss (2004, p. 177) says that, The tugs and pulls of feature versus fiction and memory versus imagination are evident within the genre of journalism. She goes on to say that, Journalism splintered from early describe and took on many of the attributes of literature. There are many attributes of literary journalism which overlap with fiction. Again, this theme of convergence is present in her thoughts. Weiss (2004, p. 179) asks a good question Has the blurring of lines from non-fiction to fiction become excessive and confusing? Roorbach (2001, p. 7) goes nearly way in answering this and states that an over-insistence on verifiable accuracy has about the same deadening effect on art as an over-insistence on conformity in style and subject. So it follows that the best head for the hills of action when considering the place of New Journalism is to nod towards the pieces of work that take province for both fact and fiction.Somerset Maugh am (1938, p. 19) hold that fiction and journalism are intrinsically conjugate and says, of news, that it is raw material straight from the knackers g-force and we are stupid if we turn our noses up at it because it smells of blood and sweat. These are the row of a literary great who feels that writers must(prenominal) take journalism into account in their work. Believing there was whole new genre, Capote called his book,In Cold Blood,a non-fiction novel, which is a book that employs the conventions of fiction to tell a true story. The work is about the mass murder of a Kansas culture family.Although the book was the peak of Capotes career as a writer, and was hailed as an international success, it on with New Journalism as a whole was heavily criticised, due to facts being changed, scenes being added and dialogue being made-up. This criticism can be seen as a positive thing though, in basis of defining New Journalism. By stating that aspects of his style of writing makes it neither journalism, nor literature, the criticism creates a new genre for Capotes work to sit, comfortably, in. Interestingly, Capote, along with Mailer and many other authors, never agreed to their styles comparisons to Wolfes school of narration.Much to the contrary, many of these writers would deny that their work was generically relevant to other new Journalists at the time. In a 1966Atlanticarticle, Dan Wakefield said that the non-fiction work of Capote proud reporting to the level of literature. Although praising the work of Capote, this goes nearly way in motto that literature is better than journalism. This is evidence for what Capote said his critics feltCombining literature and journalism is little more than a literary solution for fatigued novelists. (Plimpton, 1967, p. 16) Newfield (1967, p. 0) said that, This new genre defines itself by claiming many of the techniques that were once the unchallenged terrain of the novelist tension, symbol, cadence, irony, prosody , imagination. Gay Taleses 1966 article forEsquiremagazine,Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,was a very influential piece of New Journalism that gave a very detailed personation of Frank Sinatra, without ever having interviewed him. Talese undertook huge amounts of research, as did many of the New journalists, including Capote withIn Cold Blood. Unlike Capote, Talese did not reconcile facts of characters.His article is, therefore, an example of New Journalism that falls under the category of a journalistic genre, as opposed to a distinct genre. In agreement with the methods of Talese and vituperative of those of Capote, writer Barry Seigel, who heads up a literature and journalism course at the University of California, says that he teaches of nonfiction prose that transcends the limits of daily journalism. He even so rejects absolutely the notion of imagining or otherwise fabricating quotes, inventing characters or blurring antithetical sources into composites. (Eisenhuth and McDona ld, 2007, p. 41) If the aim of most New Journalism is to write sovividly and report in such intense bursts that a scene leaps from the page, Talese goes in the other direction. He slowly drills polish through the mundane subterranean creation of human existence to its fictional core. He said he wanted to pull up the fictional current that flows between the reality. uncomplete of these examples, nor any of the quotes gleaned from research, point towards New Journalism falling under the category of a literary genre.Obviously there forget be those that do not wish to have it associated with the word literature they see it as a bastard child. Hartsock (2000, p. 7) states that New Journalism reflects a rough, but not certain(prenominal) split between journalism and literature. He notes that some commentators, such as Lounsberry, who is as strain with English studies, prefer to view it as a literary genre. Others, such as Connery, who is affiliated with journalism, prefer to view it as a journalistic genre. He adds that, there long has been a bias against journalism by English studies. Eisenhuth and McDonald (2007, p. 49) say that some journalists tend to see the term as bunging it on a bit, but the fact is that the notion of New Journalism is gaining contractance, even in university English departments, which have customally disdained the reporting milieu that has nurtured so many novelists the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Graham Green and in more recent times, journalists false non-fiction writers and novelists like Robert Drewe. Drewe was the centre of Conleys 1998 article, pitch of a Novelist, Death of a Journalist.Drewe is Australias most prominent author turned journalist. His first book, The Savage Crows, was well received,although at the time with some surprise, like here is a dog that can reproof a bicycle and play a trumpet at the same time, which was sort of flattering and slightly offensive He said his transition to fiction entailed a gru dging acceptance because of Australias tradition that novelists either came from the School of Hard Knocks the realist, outback, dingo-trapping reach or from English Departments. (Conley, 1998, p. 0) There is still, to this day, an spacious amount of debate surrounding New Journalism and its place in the world of writing. There is, and always will be, a furore amongst steadfast writers that refuse to accept it into the literary world. Connery acknowledges the difficulty of the forms identity, and that our understanding of New Journalism as a genre is still very much emerging. (Hartsock, 2000, p. 3) The absolute fact that Connery seeks to find a acknowledgment at all highlights the critical irritation with the forms identity.Weber argues that this discomfort comes because this category of serious writing is not well defined, and the many different hurt used to describe it do not help. (Hartsock, 2000, p. 6) Here, he is obviously referring to the terms literary Journalism, N ew Journalism, and Literary Non-fiction which qualify in use, depending on the commentator. It seems that an answer will never be reached as to whether or not New Journalism is a stand-alone genre. Without taking the sceptics and critics too much to heart, New Journalism seems to be nestled, honourable fine, in its own world. Lounsberry (1990, p. 5) sums things up in a nutshell, despite her affiliation towards New Journalism as a literary genre. She states that, it does not really matter what pattern we give to this type of discourse it is possible to study it without actually placing it under any specific category. References Books Collins Concise Dictionary, 1999. New Journalism. Glasgow Harper Collins Publishers. Eisenhuth, S, MacDonald, W. , 2007. The Writers Reader dread Journalism and Nonfiction. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Hartsock, J. C. , 2000. A history of American Literary Journalism.The Emergence of a new Narrative Form. Massachusetts University of Massa chusetts Press. Lounsberry, B. , 1990. The contrivance of Fact Contemporary Artists of Nonfiction. Lincoln Greenwood Press. Maugham, S. , 1938. The Summing Up. capital of the United Kingdom Heinemann. Roggenkamp, K. , 2005. Narrating the News New Journalism and Literary Genre in Late 19th Century Newspapers and Fiction. Kent, OH Kent State University Press. Roorbach, B. ,2001. The Art of equity Contemporary Creative Nonfiction. New York Oxford University Press. Articles Conley, D. , 1998. Birth of a Novelist, Death of a Journalist.Australian Studies in Journalism 7,46-73, p1. Murphy, J. E. , 1974. The New Journalism A Critical Perspective. Journalism Monographs,34, p15. Newfield, J. , 1967. Hooked and Dead. New York Times Book Review,May 7, p. 20. Wakefield, D. , 1966. The personal Voice and the Impersonal Eye. The Atlantic,pp. 86-89 Weiss, C. , 2004. Reviving the Elephant legal transfer Literary Journalism Back into the Classroom. Schenley mellowed School,p173. Websites Plimp ton, G. , 1967. Truman Capote In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors callback His Turbulent Career. Online Available at http//www. thefreelibrary. com/Truman+Capote%3A+In+Which+Various+Friends,+Enemies,+Acquaintances,+and -a020210227 Accessed 27 November 2010) Wikipedia, 2010. New Journalism. Online Available at http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/New_Journalism Accessed 27 November 2010. Wolfe, T. , 1972. player Reveals Main Factors Leading to Demise of the Novel, rhytidectomy of New Style Covering Events. New York Magazine. Online Available at http//nymag. com/news/media/47353/ Accessed 27 November 2010.