Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative.
When producing a piece of work in a gonzo style way you must 'always go for the quest', essentially putting yourself in the thick of the action regarding the story.
Top tips for creating gonzo journalism;
- Self effacement - Get your style right, it is key to not take yourself too seriously.
- Pick an unusual situation - go into a situation with your camera and with no prejudiced views.
- Adopt an approach as if you have never done this kind of journalism before, it will make you seem more interested in the situation.
- Focus on the small details. Fascinating over something so small is what gonzo journalists do. Similar to Tom Wolfe's style, his book 'In cold blood' essentially began life as a news story and was reconstructed into a novel and then a film.
Tom Wolfe and Ryzard Kapunscinski as well as others, are the elite of this style of journalism where as our style would be more 'high street'.
Tom Wolfe's rules; The four tools used for story telling (New Journalism style):
- Scene by scene construction - with jump cuts and punctuation.
- Phonetic dialogue - actual speech (wild track).
- Third person restricted point of view (no 'I see' but 'it is')
- Concentration on symbolic status life as the subject matter.
Performance journalism is extremely popular, it is essentially factual features. The documentary 'Supersize Me' is an example of performance journalism where the journalist has to authentically experience the subject they are reporting on. Morgan Spurlock, the journalist in 'Supersize Me' spends one month consistently eating only McDonald's to investigate how good or, should we say how bad the food really is for us.
Performance journalism appears to be heading towards 'Roman Circus Journalism' where the journalist is tortured live on TV to get ratings. 'Gonzo' is now the default format for all TV journalism and quite often used for feature writing too.
Often a lot of solipsism is used in confessional interviews which is a gonzo style thing to do, often using lots of I,I,I which is first person reporting. This report will include details of everything you saw which is not necessarily needed for confessional interviews.
New Journalism;
Photography was introduced to journalism only during the 30's, quite a shocking fact as journalism today is primarily picture led. Moving through to the 60's and 70's it was a popular culture in the USA which significantly led to a generational change, seeing the rise of 'The new left' alternative society.
At this time people were finding their voices and encouraged the following changes; Anti Vietnam war, anti-consumerism, feminism, black power, popular existentialism movement, rock music, the Beatles, post-expressionism and the baby boom.
During these changes some of the elite gonzo journalists wrote many interesting articles;
- Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic" article was written about a dinner party in Manhattan where The Black Panther's (political party) are in the same room as the head of the Metropolitan opera. Wolfe explores the environment and focuses on the luxury and expensive surroundings. Another of Wolfe's "The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test" is a gonzo piece about Ken Kinsey and LSD. He also had a film made out of 'the one which flew over the cuckoo's nest"
- Hunter S Thompson wrote "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas" which was commissioned to be written about drag racing however he was considerably distracted by the drug LSD.
- Rsyzard Kapuscinksi wrote "The Emperor" which was deemed as high art.
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