The New Journalism

American journalism began with the penny papers. These papers were deeply partisan and were filled with merchants and politicians. However by the mid 19^th century objectivity was required in order to be profitable.

The first new journalism appeared as the yellow press late in the 19^th century. The two major players in this new form of journalism were that of William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World.

This new age of the yellow press implemented something known as sensationalism. This saw huge emotive headlines and big striking pictures appearing on the front page of newspapers in order to attract customers into buying the newspaper. All newspapers before this had been mainly focused on political and economic issues. This new type of news had exclusives, dramatic stories, romantic stories shocking stories, crime stories etc. Many called this yellow journalism the new journalism without a soul as all the stories were about sex, sin and violence.

By the 1960’s and 1970’s the yellow press started to write about foreign wars, political or social upheaval or military threats. Journalists ended up recording the events of the day in a very formulaic way. However there was a lot to write about in this decade. Firstly the JFK assassination, then the refusal by Muhammed Ali to be conscripted for the Vietnam war, the Vietnam war itself, the sexual revolution, the pill, the student movement, the protests in 1968. There was a very anti0-establishment movement spreading across England and America.

Following this there was a shift from the act of ‘seeing’ to the act of ‘telling’ readers or in other words objectivity is disregarded in favour of subjective experience and storytelling.

One of the most recent forms of journalism is known as Gonzo Journalism. This involved the idea that a journalist would participate in a form of performance journalism, for example the journalist presented in Fear and loathing in las vegas or supersize me fit this category. Journalists were effectively seen as adventurers who risked their jobs, their health and maybe even their lives in pursuit of a hot story.