HCJ Seminar: Tom Wolfe-The New Journalism

This weeks reading was "The New Journalism" by Tom Wolfe. Part 1 of this book describes how editors worked in the same miserable conditions as reporters. The reporters had no ambition to move up, and so the editors felt no threat from below.

Wolfe goes on to talk about an unspoken competition between the reporters to get a "scoop" meaning getting the biggest and best story before any of the others. An example of this is Mok, who jumps into the freezing sea, and swims over to a man in a boat in order to get an interview and meet his deadline.

The main idea in this section is that journalism is just a step towards the final triumph of writing a novel-a dream achieved by Portis, who quits his job on a whim, moves into a shack and writes a novel called Norwood, followed by True Grit.

Wolfe then goes on to talk about columnists, and how Breslin made the revolutionary discovery that it was feasible for a columnist to actually leave the building and do reporting on his own. Breslin would go out and cover a story as a reporter, and then write about it in his column.

The book then goes on to explain how most columnists run out of material after 8-10 weeks, and begin writing about people they overhear in the street etc.

The main theme of the book is how journalism changed. Wolfe identified 4 devices that were conventionally used in novels, that he began to use in journalism.

These are:

• Scene-by-scene construction
• Full recorded dialogue
• 3rd person point of view
• Recording gestures, facial expressions, manner, habits, clothing etc

Wolfe claimed "I had the feeling I was doing things no-one had ever done before in journalism, moving beyond the conventional limits of journalism-more ambitious, intense, more detailed."

However, this movement was attacked as impressionistic, as it was extraordinary for a new style to be created via journalism.

Novelists began claiming that their books were not novels, but a new literary genre they had invented so that literary people would take it seriously.

The second part of the book is a collection of examples of this "new journalism".

WINOL Week 5 Debrief

WINOL is improving every week, and is becoming even more professional. The news was well balanced this week, and appeals to a wide range of people, and the headlines were much stronger. One thing to remember is to be consistent with the sign off. Name, Winchester News Online, Place. Another thing is to make sure the script and the voiceovers are all written in the same tense.

The graphics were also very good this week, a lot more interesting and easy to understand.

Well done to everyone! I'm currently looking at the Guardian Media Awards and looking at suitable candidates...

Watch this space!

Albert Camus-The Outsider

The Outsider is set in French Algeria, and has been translated from French into English.

It is an example of existentialism and absurdism, in the way that existentialists believe that individual lives and human existence have no rational meaning, but humanity attempts to find rational meaning where there is none. For example, turning to religion to give their lives a purpose or meaning. They also believe that the only certain thing in life is death. This is shown in the final chapter, when the main character, Meursalt, gives up false hope of escaping jail, and becomes truly happy knowing he is facing death.

The book is written in the perfect present tense. Thinking about the past results in guilt, and thinking about the future results in dread. Meursalt does not feel guilty about his past, showing no emotion at his mothers funeral, or over the murder he commits. He also does not dread the future, he is indifferent about marrying his girlfriend, and does not worry about the consequences of his actions. He only feels through his senses.

Meursalt is completely honest throughout the entire book. He rejects religion, even when he is facing certain death, because as mentioned above, he believes as an existentialist, that human existence has no rational meaning.

The characters in the book watch and observe others, especially Meursault. He spends an entire afternoon watching out of his window at other people in the street.

In the afterword, Camus says: "A man who doesn't cry at his mothers' funeral is liable to be condemned to death. The hero of the book is condemned because he refuses to lie. Lying is not only saying what isn't true, it is also saying more than is true, saying more than one feels. Meursault says what he is, he refuses to his feelings and society feels threatened."

The text can be found here: http://www.macobo.com/essays/epdf/CAMUS,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Stranger.pdf

I would recommend it to anyone reading this blog, as it is an interesting read, as well as insightful into existentialism.

WINOL Week 4 Debrief

A fantastic effort this week! The bulletin is really improving, however the links and headlines are still weak. In sport, they refuse to show goals in the headlines, yet show the team celebration? Surely in matches with several goals, showing one as a tease would be more productive than showing the celebration?

There was another black hole after the opening sequence. The music has been left longer, but the picture hasn't. This needs to be corrected for next week.

We went to air 20 minutes late this week, because I received an email updating one of the stories, which caused a serious legal issue that needed to be resolved.

The only points I can really bring up about the bulletin is to keep consistent. Record all voiceovers from the same place, and check the levels of the sound, especially in sport, to make sure the natural sound isn't drowning out the voice-over.

The worst part of the bulletin is the failed Colin Firth story. There are several ways we could have find a contact for an interview, and it just didn't happen. Angus said in the debrief that the address of the parents can be found in the electoral register, but nobody checked, and the story was left as an OOV.

It wasn't a perfect week, but everybody did really well, and produced a very high-quality bulletin.