Tom Wolfe’s famous book, The New Journalism, is a manifesto for a new type of journalism that highly differs to the old style of journalistic writings.
The age of literary movement changed Journalism from being a boring form of telling the story from scientific facts point of view to telling naturalistic, actual stories of what was being seen at the scene. Psychology had a high impact on Journalism as objectivity was no longer welcome; instead talking about an authentic experience was more wanted. People wanted to read true and honest articles. Tom Wolfe portrays how journalism has growth from old forms of writings that included unexciting facts to the new, modern journalism.
Tom Wolfe in his book presents how he wanted Journalism to become more than just reporting on current affairs. He wanted literature to help describe how the society develops in current years. The first part of the book shows how features changed Journalism from being about boring, factual news to being a way up to write a novel. He described features as stories that fall outside the category of hard news.
Reporters instead of worrying that they need to find a news story and instead of chasing the big news stories, and reporting on tragedies, focused on writing their own pieces of features that were then published in magazines such as New Yorker. Tom Wolfe however thought that joining journalism with literary devices together could make the best way of reporting on current affairs in America. People would be more interested in reading about their country in a form of a feature story, sort of like a novel- because everyone enjoys reading novels, instead of trying to work out the experimental and complicated old journalistic language. This was because Tom Wolfe felt like American novels were moving away from realism, he wanted to bring it back, as once again according to psychological concerns, people wanted truth and honesty. Wolfe thought that the only way to bring realism back to life is by mixing literary devices with journalism.
The main changes in Journalism show 4 devices that Tom Wolfe identified, which were taken from novels:
1. Scene by scene construction- It is essential for the journalists to be at the scene to see what exactly happened as this is the only way they can be honest and truthful.
2. Fully recorded dialogue- It is important to have the whole speech, as well as explaining to the audience who the interviewee is. It gives colour to the story.
3. 3rd person point of view- Not use ‘I’, explaining in 3rd person everything that is happening, everything that other people are doing, explaining what the reporter is seeing in 3rd person, as if the reporter was a character of the story too.
4. Adding details to every day’s life- concentrating on little details. Describing the weather, the way people dress, the way they express themselves.
Hello Justi I think this will be my last comment for this term! This person sounds so interesting and his ideas fine,- just what seems to me, his completely insisting on being himself and doing it his way, which after all is what it is about. Of course, in news reporting there is a responsibility to stick to the brief of informing others neutrally but in other writing short stories, novels etc you can do as you wish. However the 4 'rules' above seem very good guides to me and add more interest. I prefer the third person, but if you are on the spot a certain amount of first person would have to be used I imagine. I looked up Wolfe and see his first book was called 'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby', how great is that for a title! Anyway, detail in all matters seems the order for writing and reporting and some of it depends on fine observation which in turn means good eyesight, which I personally lack, also a burning interest in the subject. Good luck with all for next term and I look forward to seeing what you are up to then. Love Cait XXX
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