In this article, the author presents a brief overview of Gonzo journalism and subsequent developments of journalistic activity. Special attention is paid to the specifics and intricate details of Gonzo style of writing.
Keywords: gonzo journalism, journalism, tenet.
It is quite apparent that progress never stops and this is no exception for the journalistic field, however it is becoming clear as day that the evolution in this field is hindered by journalistic tenets or its five main elements if you like. These core principles ensure that the truthfulness and correctness, political and not, are upheld.
These five pillars are described as:
– Truth and Accuracy — unironically, this is the first journalistic tenet, the one that focuses on the cardinal principle of collecting and making sure that the facts and other information presented on the news are indeed the truth. And even though sometimes it may be impossible to accurately portray this truth, it is a journalist’s cardinal principle to provide factual information to the public;
– Independence — this tenet goes in line with the previous one. It is imperative that a journalist does not speak formally or informally on the behalf of neither a corporation or any other organization nor on behalf of any interest cultural, political or any other, since not only may it skew the public opinion on the highlighted matter due to the aforementioned affiliation but it destroys the credibility and the main principle of truthfulness of journalism;
– Fairness and Impartiality — it is quite important to remember that every story has two sides, and so the way one approaches a news story should include this small but ever so important detail. It is not required to highlight both sides however it is imperative one does not become enveloped in an echo chamber of sorts that will prevent them from correctly judging the situation shown in the news piece. Keeping all sides of the story in check brings as much objectivity as possible, but as with many things sometimes it may prove too hard to keep the objectivity the information deserves;
– Humanity — some of the things shown, declared and shared by journalists may have a discriminating or any other sort of negative effect on some people, which is why for journalists it is crucial to stay aware of the power of words and to be responsible of what and how they publish;
– Accountability — speaking of responsibility, every journalist is accountable for the committed actions in their field. As mentioned in the previous tenet sometimes it is impossible to know for sure how this or that news piece may affect other people, especially if by some unfortunate chain of events the information shared turned out to be false, among other things.
While these principles sound nicely on paper, they collide with the newer trends in media development. Since journalism at its core is media, it would be hard to coexist by it own specific rules with so many other media sources syphoning the attention away from the it, which is why some changes had to be made. One of better examples of such developments is a branch of journalism called «Gonzo journalism», a term coined and practically created by writer Hunter S. Thompson.
In his writing endeavors, Thompson worked out gonzo journalism as a by-product of «New Journalism» style of writing that was popular in 1960s and 70s. This new style stood out in the sea of content with its in-your-face attitude and unlikely manner of writing that did not sit well with the core principles of journalism. The word «gonzo» itself has a very murky origin being accredited to the Spanish word «ganso» — meaning gander, lazy slovenly person or dunce [1]. However, it may also have been derived from the Italian word «gonzo» which translates into English as «foolish». Whatever the case may be, this word was Americanized and has a whole new meaning. With now having several years pass since the initial creation of the style and the ponderings on the peculiarity of its name, Oxford Dictionary states that gonzo journalism is: reporting in newspapers that tries to make readers shocked or excited rather than to give true information [2].
According to articles published by the popular and several award-winning streaming platform called MasterClass [3], Thompson’s career and delve into gonzo style began with his written piece on the Mint 400 motorcycle race, which slowly turned into an article that we know as «Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas». It is a horrifying and excruciatingly detailed piece made for the Rolling Stone magazine. Instead of writing about the Mint race Thompson opted to write about his trip as a whole. He describes his experience with drugs there, his hallucinations and vision he subsequently got from those drugs and many other challenges he experienced during his time in Las Vegas. His narration, filled with erratic use of profanity and detailed descriptions made it hard to read on the race but created an interesting piece of writing surprisingly praised for its dark humor and profanity-ridden prose which was later turned into a standalone hardcover novel.
He later also writes one more piece in the same at that point popularized gonzo style but this this time about the time he spent with the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC). He talks about the philosophy and ideology present among the members of the HAMC. Instead of simply describing what he saw and heard, in this piece Thompson decided to compare what he heard from HAMC with his own views and ideologies on many various matters which made the piece although once again break the principles of journalism but a very enjoyable one at that.
Thompson as it turned out did not want to stop there, as he, besides popularizing and spreading the word of gonzo journalism, decided to come up with a symbol for it, that can be seen below:
Fig. 1. The symbol of gonzo journalism
In their research article called «Gonzo-Journalism in modern era», Noskov A. S. and Igoshina O. A. describe this symbol in detail, pointing out that the logo itself is quite telling of what gonzo style represents [4].
It is a six-fingered hand clutched into a fist with the peyote flower inside. The authors of the article interpret the clutched fist as a sign of freedom and unity, self-empowered control and rebellion, justice and political reality and readiness to fight for one’s deserved rights. Meanwhile the peyote flower is the most telling in the symbol, since it is a small brown cactus species that people produce drugs from, specifically mescaline, which was a drug of Thompson’s choice. On the bottom of the symbol, we see a sword-like blade with the word gonzo as its «guard». The sword may represent the power and authority of a journalist’s word while, the peyote flower represents freedom and limitless thinking, the anomalous number of fingers may indicate just that — the bizarre and anomalous nature of gonzo journalism.
He underlying problem with this style of writing became apparent with the first of its kind. Subjective expression and the breaking of most tenets would have made Thompson’s creations fail if they were not so popular right from the get-go.
As a whole, gonzo journalism was just a beginning in a series of developments that would forever transform journalism. With the introduction of television and subsequently Internet, journalism has branched out into what we now know as multimedia journalism. The subjective and emotional component has stuck to the journalistic activity even to this day: clickbait titles, slandering in articles with the clear expression of one’s opinion or some third-party agenda — it is all too prevalent in today’s journalistic pieces.
The amount of self-proclaimed, judgmental and too subjective journalists and journalistic organizations created a space in modern times in which it is quite challenging to establish an idealistic journalistic activity. With the rising distrust towards journalism and the submission to new and up-and-coming trends in media culture, it is imperative as never before to keep the five tenets close and follow them to produce truthful and accurate informational pieces, since if journalists will not follow the tenets — is there real journalism out there at all?
References:
- Mosser J. What’s gonzo about Gonzo Journalism? //Literary Journalism Studies. — 2012. — Т. 4. — №. 1. — С. 85–90.
- Term «Gonzo journalism» https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/gonzo-journalism?q=gonzo
- MasterClass article on Gonzo journalism https://www.masterclass.com/articles/understanding-gonzo-journalism#2KE6vWHmczsTeurwQK8Nb0
- Игошина О. А., Носков А. С. Место гонзо-журналистики в системе современных СМИ //Огарёв-online. — 2014. — №. 5 (19). — С. 8.
- Hoover S. Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo Journalism: a guide to the research //Reference services review. — 2009.
