The New Journalism of the Sixties:
Reevaluating Objective Reality and
Conventional Journalistic Practice
Introduction
Although objectivity traditionally has been an important value of
American journalism,1 the social and political turmoil of the 1960s prompted
some journalists to reevaluate conventional techniques of news gathering and
reporting. An increasing number of journalists found the technical constraints of
the reporter as a detached observer recording contemporary history in the
formulaic inverted-pyramid style2 inadequate in capturing the “social
hemorrhaging”3 that was taking place in 1960s America. If indeed the “center
was not holding'*4—spawning a nation of subcultures, alternative lifestyles,
sexual and drug experimentation, and dissent from members of the anti-Vietnam
War, civil rights, and feminist movements—then experimentation in reportage
was considered necessary to describe the fragmented social reality.
Labeled problematically as the “New Journalism,**5 the experimentation
found reporters in the mid-to-late Sixties employing the techniques of the
novelist to tell a true story. Just as the American novel of the 1930s sought to
capture the gritty nuances of realism,6 so too did New Journalism works strive to
cut below the surface of superficiality and examine the way people behave in
revealing moments. Journalist Gay Talese observes that although the New
Journalism reads like fiction, it should be as reliable as conventional reportage.
She notes that experimental reportage seeks a larger truth than is possible
through the mere compilation of verifiable facts, the use of direct quotations,
and adherence to the rigid organizational style of traditional newswriting.7
Talese adds: “The New Journalism allows, demands in fact, a more imaginative
approach to reporting, and it permits the writer to inject himself into the
narrative if he wishes . . . or to assume the role of a detached observer.. .”8 In
the former style, the writer’s emotions and reactions to the social reality that is
unfolding becomes central to the narrative. This “reality” is filtered through the
thought processes and senses of the reporter, then presented to the reader as
personal sense-making, rather than omnipresent sense-making. Meanwhile, the
detached observer form finds the reporter following his subjects unobtrusively,
observing their reactions and the reactions of others to them. The goal is to
absorb the whole scene—the dialogue, the mood, the tension, drama, or
conflict—and then write it all from the point of view of the persons being
observed.9 Talese writes that many New Journalists try whenever possible to
reveal what individuals are thinking during the moments being described. He
adds, “This latter insight is not obtainable, of course, without the full
cooperation of the subject, but if the writer enjoys the confidence and trust of his