Technology And The Decline of Gonzo Journalism

johnny maelstrom writes "Pitchfork has an article on how being unable to write about technology has dumbed-down the media. It's quite interesting to see that the formulaic writings in the technology media and the assumption that we don't all get it has lead to a stagnant media. They call for the next Bangs or Thompson and a revival of Gonzo. From the article: 'They [the audience] want a tastemaker, a voice of authority, who can put it all in perspective and knock our heads together with his or her crazy-yet-dead-on arguments. But I think I've found the answer: We don't have a new Bangs or Thompson yet because pop culture today is primarily a technology story. And we don't know how to write about technology.'"

HST's classic article

[hotspotbloc]

It's a must read: "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" [nyud.net]. Personally I blame the decline on the lack of good drugs. =)

Re:Taking advice from Pitchfork?

[cecille]

Gonzo journalism inolves blending fiction with non-fiction

In some cases, yes, Thomson readily admits to having stories that have fictional components In particular, he admitted publicly on numerous occasions that fear & loathing in las vegas was party fictional (probably because it's not the best idea to write an entirely truthful story where you admit to committing a large number of felonies).

BUT, F&L is the exception, not the rule and it was marketed as a novel, not as a journalistic piece. HST did write things that were partly fictional, but the idea behind Gonzo journalism really doesn't have anything to do with fact vs. fiction at all. The idea behind Gonzo journalism is that no journalist can really say that they are completely unbiased about anything, so a gonzo journalist goes completely the other way and writes themselves right into the story, readily admitting and embracing bias and effectively becoming part of the story they are writing about. They aren't fictional though. This is actually something that Thomspon wrote about in some of his books and he is very adamant about it.

More about gonzo here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo [wikipedia.org]

Daily Show viewers better informed

[extra88]

The survey didn't say Daily Show made them better informed (about the 2004 presidential campaign), just that they were better informed that people surveyed who did not watch The Daily Show. It's definitely correlation, not causation. People who watched any late night comedy show (Leno, Letterman) were also better informed but not as informed as Daily Show watchers.

I don't get Comedy Central right now but I love both Daily Show and Colbert Report. I would say they inform me of issues in a way similar to scanning headlines does.

Daily Show Viewers Knowledgeable About Presidential Campaign, National Annenberg Election Survey Shows [PDF] [annenbergp...center.org]

Google HTML version [64.233.161.104]

Re:More like we don't know how to read tech...

[Damek]

There's a difference between intelligence and education. Most people probably could understand technology, if they'd received an adequate education. But our education system has been under attack and/or allowed to fall into disrepair for so long that most people alive right now haven't the basis for using their own intelligence.