Gonzo journalism

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Gonzo journalism is a style of reporting that mixes fiction and factual journalism. It uses a highly subjective style that often includes the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative and events can be exaggerated in order to emphasize the underlying message. Gonzo journalism is considered to be part of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s.

The term was first used to describe the style of American journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who said he was disappointed with the state of journalism and sought to press greater truth over specific facts. The word gonzo has since been applied in kind to other artistic endeavors.

Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and aims to describe personal experiences or the essence or mood of things rather than facts. It disregards the 'polished' edited product favored by newspaper media and strives for the gritty factor. Use of quotes, sarcasm, humor, exaggeration, and even profanity is common. The use of Gonzo journalism portends that journalism can be truthful without striving for objectivity and is loosely equivalent to an editorial.

[edit] Hunter S. Thompson

Thompson based his style on William Faulkner's idea that "the fiction is often the best fact." While the things that Thompson writes about are basically true, he uses satirical devices to drive his points home.

In Thompson's work, the narrator's viewpoint is frequently distorted by consumption of drugs and alcohol (often noted in the writing), but gonzo journalism is not about using drugs and alcohol.

The term gonzo was first applied to Thompson's writing in 1970 by Bill Cardoso, a Boston Globe editor after he read Thompson's The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" written for the June 1970 Scanlan's Monthly and illustrated by the Welsh cartoonist Ralph Steadman. As the deadline approached, and with his article still not done, Thompson resorted to sending the editors pages ripped out of his notebook which contributed to the highly subjective style.

Cardoso claimed the word had originated with the Irish in South Boston to describe the last man standing at the end of an all-night drinking marathon. "Gonzo" may derive from gonzagas, an Italian word meaning absurdities. Bill Cardoso claimed it was a corruption of the French Canadian word "gonzeaux" which means "shining path," although this fact is often disputed.[1]

On the success of the article, Thompson is reported to have said, "I felt like I had fallen down an elevator shaft and landed in a pool full of mermaids."

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream followed in 1971 and included a main character by the name of "Dr. Gonzo." Although this book is considered to be a prime example of gonzo journalism, Thompson said that it was a failed experiment. He had intended it to be a record of everything he did as it happened, and unedited. However, he ended up editing the book five times before it was published^{[citation needed]}.

Douglas Brinkley said gonzo journalism requires virtually no rewriting and frequently uses transcribed interviews and verbatim telephone conversations. Other writers who have worked in "gonzo" mode include P. J. O'Rourke, William Godwin, and Matt Taibbi.

Gonzo journalism can be seen as an offshoot of the New Journalism movement in the sixties, led primarily by Tom Wolfe, and also championed by Lester Bangs and George Plimpton.

"I don't get any satisfaction out of the old traditional journalist's view—'I just covered the story. I just gave it a balanced view,'" Thompson said in an interview for the online edition of The Atlantic. "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon."