ABSTRACT
This chapter examines news reports and features filed to newspapers and magazines during and after the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, August 26–29, 1968. This turbulent week in American history is used as a case study to examine what differentiates the New Journalism from the mainstream press. This is accomplished by examining the stories published in four daily newspapers—New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender, the Globe and Mail—during and after the crisis for evidence of New Journalism-style writing, using Tom Wolfe’s litmus test, i.e., do the reports contain scenes, details, dialogue, point of view, and saturation reporting? There were a few attempts to reach beyond the facts to capture the “feel” of the moment, but not many. The chapter also examines New Journalism texts written by authors either directly associated with the genre (Norman Mailer, Hunter Thompson, John Sack, Terry Southern), somewhat associated (David Lewis Stein, John Schultz, Michael Arlen, William Burroughs), or tangential to it (William Styron, Elizabeth Hardwick, Nora Sayre, Jean Genet). Based on the evidence, New Journalism-style writing did capture that chaotic moment in history in a deeper, more meaningful way, with more stylistic verve.
