Gonzo and New Journalism

Tips for creating ‘Gonzo Journalism’:

·         In gonzo go for the 'quest.'

·         Get the style right, it's important to not take yourself seriously.  

·         Pick an unusual situation

·         Go into the situation with no prejudice views.

·         Do something that you have never done before, that way you will be more interested in the subject.

·         Focus on small details. Fascinating over something so small is what gonzo journalists do. Similar to Tom Wolfe's style or like John Steinbeck (fiction author). 

Tom Wolfe's rules

The 4 tools for story telling (New Journalism style):

1.      Scene by scene construction (with jump cuts or punctuation)

2.      Phonetic dialogue, actual speech (wild track)

3.      Third person restricted point of view (no 'I see," used "it is")

4.      Concentration on symbolic status life as the subject matter.

Performance Journalism is very popular. Essentially it is factual features. The documentary ‘Supersize Me’ is an example of performance journalism where the journalist has to actually participate in the subject. For instance, in ‘Supersize Me’, journalist Morgan Spurlock has to eat only McDonalds for one month to investigate the side effects of the food.

Performance Journalism appears to be heading towards ‘Roman Circus Journalism’ where the journalist is tortured live on TV etc to get ratings. ‘Gonzo’ is now the default format for almost all TV Journalism and also for feature writing too. Often a lot of Solipsism in confessional interviews is used (Gonzo Style).

New journalism: 

Photography in journalism was only introduced in the 30's. This is shocking to here when you think that at present most Journalism is picture led.

During the 1960s/70s- popular culture in USA was a generational change. ‘The new left’, alternative society.

At this time people were finding their voice and encouraged the following changes: Anti Vietnam War, anti consumerism, feminism (spare rib magazine just females), black power, popular existentialism movement (just do it slogan), rock music, the Beatles, post-expressionism, the baby boom. 

During these changes some of the elite gonzo journalists wrote many interesting articles. E.g. Tom Wolfe's ‘Radical Chic’ and ‘The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test’. Hunter S Thompson wrote ‘fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ commissioned to write about drag racing. Rsyzard Kapuscinski wrote ‘The Emperor’.