‘THE TALENTS OF A MASTER JOURNALIST […] AND THE HEAVY BALLS OF AN ACTOR’ LOUIS THEROUX AS A NEW JOURNALIST Word count: 26,827 Luna Willems Student number: 01405175 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Gert Buelens A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde Duits-Engels” Academic year: 2017-2018 I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my grandfather Marcel, who passed away a few days prior to the deadline of this thesis. Dear opa, I hope to make you proud. Acknowledgements I owe deep gratitude to my supervisor, prof. dr. Gert Buelens, for his ever-valuable advice, his patience with my plentiful questions and all the time he has taken out to support me throughout the writing of this thesis. Thank you for sharing my enthusiasm about my topic — it inspired me to keep going in difficult times. Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to my cousin Tine, who has been my role model for as long as I remember, for sharing her own experiences with me. Thank you for your encouragement and help throughout the process of this thesis. I would also like to extend my thanks to my closest friends Marie, Lilli, and Aulikki, who support me always and bring joy to my life. Finally, I could not have achieved this without the support of my family. Many thanks to my father, who without any protest underwent my many lively monologues about my thesis and often chipped in to offer his own experiences of the 1960s and 1970s. Many thanks to my mother, who encouraged me in moments of self-doubt and stimulated my interest in Louis Theroux in the first place. And to my brother Milan, who despite my faults has always been a person on whom I could count. Thank you for supporting me during the writing process of this thesis and throughout all the years that came before. I am profoundly grateful. Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................................ 5 Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................7 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1: New and Gonzo Journalism .................................................................................13 Chapter 2: Temporal Context .................................................................................................19 2.1 Times of Sociopolitical Unrest ..........................................................................19 2.2 The 1960s ..........................................................................................................20 2.3 The 1990s ..........................................................................................................23 Chapter 3: Geographic Context .............................................................................................25 Chapter 4: Motivations ..........................................................................................................31 Chapter 5: Stylistic and Structural Characteristics ................................................................39 5.0 The Visual Aspect of Literary Journalism .........................................................39 5.1 On Topic ............................................................................................................45 5.1.1 Ethnography ..........................................................................................45 5.1.2 Sensationalism ......................................................................................47 5.2 On Construction .................................................................................................53 5.2.1 Acquirement of Information.................................................................. 53 5.2.2 Stylistic Structure ..................................................................................55 5.3 On Method .........................................................................................................61 5.3.1 Persona ..................................................................................................61 5.3.2 Immersion, Participation and Self-Insertion .........................................66 5.3.3 Subjectivity and Judgment ....................................................................73 Results.................................................................................................................................... 81 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................85 Works Cited ...........................................................................................................................87 Word Count: 26,827 words Introduction The field of serious journalism has been standing in the firing line ever since clickbait, fake news, and alternative facts started to enter the public sphere. Objectivity, the concept standing in between the two sides, has been both praised and condemned. Those representing serious journalism have eagerly been trying to restore the prestige of their centerpiece: the objective truth. However, amidst all this boosting of the concept of objectivity, the public has forgotten that objectivity is not a prerequisite for the production of valuable journalism. Little to no attention is being given to the work of a few individuals who did not adhere to the paradigm of objectivity, yet did not present less worthwhile accounts of reality because of it. The 1960s were turbulent times in the west. Despite a promising start, the conservatism of American society in the 1950s quickly dissolved into a time of chaos. War, political assassinations, and polarization ravaged the decade. The Civil Rights Movement exposed the American people to the injustices committed under their flag, which until now had represented the culmination of morality and justness. Worldviews collapsed, and the youth started rebelling. Amidst of this turning point in history, a handful of feature writers and reporters started questioning traditional journalism’s ability to document the times with the techniques it had at its disposal. How could one document changes that were so profound for everyone living through them by only stating the who, what, where, how and why? As a response to this perceived inadequacy, these feature writers started to tell the story of the times through reports utilizing literary devices and an involved approach to their subjects. In 1973, Tom Wolfe categorized them all under the same denominator: The New Journalism. Journalism deviating of the norm of objectivity is often linked to periods of sociocultural unrest, and while the 1970s took over some of the spirit of its preceding decade, the flame of non-conforming journalism slowly faded out until traditional journalism gained ground again. The New Journalism, while having been popular for around two decades, failed in modifying the field of journalism permanently. However, in the mid-1990s the cult of the hands-on, subjective journalist regained popularity. The BBC brought a reporter with a unique on-screen persona and a hands-on approach in the public eye again. Due to his unique !9 reporting style, documentary maker Louis Theroux would build up a cult following over the years. Still active today, he has established an extensive repertoire of documentaries on widely different topics, ranging from the extreme to the emotionally heavy. His following likes to label him as a Gonzo Journalist, but is he, really? Gonzo Journalism, a term coined by its originator Hunter S. Thompson, is often grouped within the larger style of New Journalism. Whereas both styles share aspects and characteristics that are unique to the movement they are included in, there are also substantial differences between them. In this thesis, I will mirror the styles of New Journalism and Gonzo Journalism against Louis Theroux’s style. As Gonzo is often regarded to be a sub-style of the New Journalism, which often results in its figurehead Thompson being named a New Journalist as well. Drawing on this, the main aim of this thesis is to discern if Theroux is truthfully labeled a Gonzo Journalist, and secondly, if this also makes him qualify as a New Journalist. Concretely, I approach this research question by bringing together the theoretical frameworks that Wolfe and Thompson have constructed on their respective styles, which will be structured around each characteristic that is deemed significant for the definition of both styles. This will allow me to observe, per separate characteristic, in how far Theroux conforms to these templates or not. Firstly, I will concern myself with the contextual characteristics, namely temporal context, geographic context, and motivations, to situate the journalists in their respective timeframes and to analyze if these contextual roots are similar in nature. Then, I will identify the characteristics specific to their journalistic techniques, approach and methods, which I will use to determine how each journalist incorporates these into his work. The New Journalism was composed of reporters who were inspired by similar circumstances and responded to them in similar ways. This was, however, the only commonality between them — they were only grouped together posteriorly. Therefore, due to the style being internally diverse,