Hunter S. Thompson: Icon of Journalistic Practice - Essay Example

Hunter S. Thompson: Icon of Journalistic Practice and a Role Model to Journalists Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Introduction This essay discusses the contribution of Hunter S. Thompson in literary dictum and journalistic practice. Thompson was the inventor of gonzo journalism, writing that mediates between fiction writing and journalism. Deriving his works from a first-person approach, Thompsons grew up in Louisville, Kentucky to become an enthusiast in writing poetry, fiction and other literary pursuits. While he showed signs of deviance of difficult childhood and obedience to the rule of law, Thompson developed a revolutionary potential by combining a large stock of deviant trajectory, social capital and cultural capital to engender a new phase in journalism, the new journalism, in the late 1960s. A number of journalists came to acknowledge his deviant social life as a recipe for revolutionary change. Conversely, it was the fear of many that Thompson was too bold in castigating the evils of political hegemony and American Capitalism that maybe his undoing. By living through the race riots, student protests, women demand for equality and recognition of personal freedom, Thompson treaded in courage and freedom of conscience to influence fiction writing and gonzo journalism. Hunter S. Thompson: Revolutionist and role model Hunter S. Thompson is regarded as the iconoclastic hero of the written journalism and an enduring father of ‘gonzo journalism’ because he was bold in vocalizing his opinions about culture. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the author was identified alongside Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe as a breed of ‘new jorunalists’ who disrupted conventional journalism in objective writing. Although he disliked following orders and abiding by the law, he later developed to be a great author of numerous short stories and several publications1. Being a narrative literary journalist, Thompson literary journalism techniques were questionable2. However, his involvement in narrative literary journalism and non-fiction writing became a genre that attracted professional journalists. His debut in journalism was exceptional and disruptive. If not criticizing US Air Force’s Arthur Godfrey for shooting animals from the Alaskan skies, Thompson busy advising journalists to move out of their ‘boondocks and improve their lives’3. When most journalists feared the repercussions of investigative journalism involving gangs and the underworld in the late 1960s, Thompson was bold enough to publish, Hell’s Angels, an incisive and a harsh firsthand investigation of motorcycle gangs that had held America nervous4. This showed that he was destined for greatness and ridicule at the same time. Thompson is seen a reputed outlandish stylist that has straddled the lines between fiction writing and journalism in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that appeared in 1971. Using hilarious first-person narrator, the author is accented in appropriate drawings by Ralph Steadman, a British illustrator, after he took to a full tilt gonzo style5. Most, if not all, of Thompson’s correspondence have been published from On the Campaign Trail ’72 to The Proud Highway ’97. His reasons to critique the wrongs in the American society even with difficult teenage-hood are admonished in his 1994 fourth volume of gonzo papers in which he asserts: “…the art of journalism can be practiced in many ways. While some may call it ‘perverse’, ‘primitive’ and ‘vengeful’, it can be used like a hammer to destroy the right people, who are your enemies that deserve to be crippled since they are wrong”6. Journalism, as an art, has always been used in politics to control its environment just as did H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain and Tom Paine. While these authors were branded as cheaters, frauds and lacking in objectivity, Thompson invented ‘advocacy journalism’ which became a polite way to report political situations that bear down on politicians7. He writes: “Politics is a guilty addiction that sacrifices anybody and anything to feed a stupid habit lacking cure. In presidential campaigns, the addiction seizes the high ground like Salmon that must spawn”8. Martin Hirst admits that he has been inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo rules terming him as a perfect grey collar journalist and a flawed example9. An integral part of revolutionary change was formed in the 1960s by Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism which has become part of the modern lexicon. The ability of the author to condemn the cultural, political and social upheavals is a clear influence of journalism and literary writing that smashed the rules of American journalism. Although New Journalism delved on style, their interpretations transcended non-fictional writing into literature. Thompson’s gonzo journalism was a success in a number of ways. First, he constantly forced that ‘static authorities’ to be on high alert and remain defensive. Second, the journalistic prowess based on subversive heretics that make Bourdieu’s theory is seen in his heterodox approach against the ruling elites10. John Hellmann, an English scholar describes Thompson and gonzo as: “…the necessary antidote to prepackaged concepts, forms and languages where the corporate media can produce illusory abstractions and images”11. While Thompson earned his income as a copyboy at Time Magazine that paid him $85 per week and $11,000 royalty cheque from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977, he never considered himself economically endowed12. He described the economic capital in the history of human savagery as the greatest single evil. Yet, the journalistic field is controlled by the economic capital in which those who possess less resort to subversive strategies and heresy13. Woerden agrees that Thompson may have been failed heretic against economic dictates but he distinguished himself from worldly wealth and possessions which is seen as quite logical14. Nevertheless, Thompson was notoriously hard to control and always remained loose cannon with little signs of lasting or genuine bonding social capital. Alternatively, his social capital was replaced by his cult status and his reputation. According to Bourdieu, the deviance of life’s trajectory influences an agent’s revolutionary potential15. As a result, the deepest regions of his habitus are inscribed between the modal slope of a probable career and their actual trajectory. Growing up among rich friends, literary associations and upper-class athletic clubs he did not rank with them economically meaning that he was a deviant and revolutionary16. Even with high amount of symbolic and cultural capital Thompson engendered a deviant movement in the journalism arena. The development of modernity from the 14th century has largely been influenced by communication industries straddling into the era of globalization17. New Journalism revolutionalized the features of social life through free flow of communication and information. In 2012, Thompson was complimented posthumously in his graphic biography for best graphic non-fiction and graphic novels18. The author’s freedom of conscience and free speech is idealized by many journalists, especially, in his resurrection of the junkie analogy. In his Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, Thompson asserts: “…a journalist who turns into a political junkie soon babbles and raves in print that cannot be understood by future readers”19. While extolling the prime journalistic virtues of balance and neutrality, Thompson reigns in on objective journalism as falling within the sphere of legitimate controversy. Conversely, he sanctioned the change in the thinking of liberal-democratic elites and the role of news media as a containing entity20. Yet, he opposed a public agenda that challenged or violated consensus values21. As a result, he helped in distinguishing illegitimate and legitimate political activities that had confronted journalists in many media organizations for a long time. For the first time in history, Thompson pioneered new journalism that had a public duty to inform even within a profit-oriented scope22. Hirst acknowledges that Thompson gave way to ‘tabloid journalism’ in television and magazines by talking about the lofty principles of animating democracy and the freedom of expression23. By and large, Hunter S. Thompson revolutionalized journalism and became a role model to many in the journalistic practice. Conclusion Hunter S. Thompson played a huge role in revolutionalizing journalistic practice and as a result became a role model to many journalists. Alongside other authors such as Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe, Thompson was opposed to fiction writing that was meant to sooth the addiction of the politic class or maintains the status quo. Although he faced difficulties in identifying with his own rich economic and social class, his cultural and social orientation led him to fame. America in the 1960s was straddled by many challenges that required a journalistic opinion about its true identity and reality. Thompson became a leading light, amidst controversy, to condemn the evils of imperialism and cartel-like organizations that dented American image. He contributed immensely in bringing to the fore the cultural, political and social upheavals in societies that were quickly degenerating into a big economic, social and cultural catastrophe. By distinguishing illegitimate and legitimate political activities, he motivated many journalists around the world to confront evil in society as use media organizations as elements of objectivity and free speech. References Connery, T. B. (1990). A third way to tell the story: American literary journalism at the turn of the century. In Sims, N. (Ed.), Literary journalism in the twentieth century (pp. 3-20). New York City, NY: Oxford University Press. Franklin, B. (2005). Key concepts in Journalism Studies. London: Sage Publications. Hartsock, J. (2000). A history of American literary journalism: The emergence of a modern narrative form. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. Hellmann, J. (1979). Corporate Fiction, Private Fable, and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear 120 and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. In Critique, 21(1): 16-30. Hirst, M. (1994). Introduction to Ethics for Broadcasting in COM413: Broadcasting Law and Ethics, eds. R. Patching, M. Hirst & K. Koomen, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. Hirst, M. (1998). From Gonzo to PoMo: Hunting new journalism, in Journalism Theory and Practice, ed. M. Breen, Macleay Press, Sydney, pp.196-219. Hoover, S. (2009). Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo Journalism: A guide to the research. References Services Review, 37(3): 326-339. McNamara, C. (2005). The Pursuit of Happiness, American Style: Tom Wolfe's Study of Status and Freedom. Perspectives on Political Science, 34(1): 16-26. Mindich, D. T. (1998). Just the Facts: How Objectivity Came to Define American Journalism. New York and London: New York University Press. Popova, M. (2013). Fear and Loathing in Modern Media: Hunter S. Thompson on Journalism, Politics and the Subjective. Brainpickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/18/hunter-s-thompson-journalism-politics/. Rooney, P. (2010). Gonzo journalism, an overview of media's counterculture. Phoenix Examiner, 43(2): 34-56. The Paris Review (2000). Interviews: Hunter S. Thompson, The Art of Journalism no. 1. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/619/the-art-of-journalism-no-1-hunter-s-thompson. Thompson, H. S. (1995a). Better than sex: Confessions of a political junkie, trapped like a rat In Mr Bill’s neighbourhood, Gonzo Papers vol.4, Doubleday, Sydney. Thompson, J. B. (1995b). The Media and Modernity: A social theory of the media, Polity, Cambridge. Woerden, S. (2012). Four Icons of New Journalism in Bourdieusian Field Theory. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Read More

If not criticizing US Air Force’s Arthur Godfrey for shooting animals from the Alaskan skies, Thompson busy advising journalists to move out of their ‘boondocks and improve their lives’3. When most journalists feared the repercussions of investigative journalism involving gangs and the underworld in the late 1960s, Thompson was bold enough to publish, Hell’s Angels, an incisive and a harsh firsthand investigation of motorcycle gangs that had held America nervous4. This showed that he was destined for greatness and ridicule at the same time.

Thompson is seen a reputed outlandish stylist that has straddled the lines between fiction writing and journalism in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that appeared in 1971. Using hilarious first-person narrator, the author is accented in appropriate drawings by Ralph Steadman, a British illustrator, after he took to a full tilt gonzo style5. Most, if not all, of Thompson’s correspondence have been published from On the Campaign Trail ’72 to The Proud Highway ’97. His reasons to critique the wrongs in the American society even with difficult teenage-hood are admonished in his 1994 fourth volume of gonzo papers in which he asserts: “…the art of journalism can be practiced in many ways.

While some may call it ‘perverse’, ‘primitive’ and ‘vengeful’, it can be used like a hammer to destroy the right people, who are your enemies that deserve to be crippled since they are wrong”6. Journalism, as an art, has always been used in politics to control its environment just as did H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain and Tom Paine. While these authors were branded as cheaters, frauds and lacking in objectivity, Thompson invented ‘advocacy journalism’ which became a polite way to report political situations that bear down on politicians7.

He writes: “Politics is a guilty addiction that sacrifices anybody and anything to feed a stupid habit lacking cure. In presidential campaigns, the addiction seizes the high ground like Salmon that must spawn”8. Martin Hirst admits that he has been inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo rules terming him as a perfect grey collar journalist and a flawed example9. An integral part of revolutionary change was formed in the 1960s by Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism which has become part of the modern lexicon.

The ability of the author to condemn the cultural, political and social upheavals is a clear influence of journalism and literary writing that smashed the rules of American journalism. Although New Journalism delved on style, their interpretations transcended non-fictional writing into literature. Thompson’s gonzo journalism was a success in a number of ways. First, he constantly forced that ‘static authorities’ to be on high alert and remain defensive. Second, the journalistic prowess based on subversive heretics that make Bourdieu’s theory is seen in his heterodox approach against the ruling elites10.

John Hellmann, an English scholar describes Thompson and gonzo as: “…the necessary antidote to prepackaged concepts, forms and languages where the corporate media can produce illusory abstractions and images”11. While Thompson earned his income as a copyboy at Time Magazine that paid him $85 per week and $11,000 royalty cheque from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977, he never considered himself economically endowed12. He described the economic capital in the history of human savagery as the greatest single evil.

Yet, the journalistic field is controlled by the economic capital in which those who possess less resort to subversive strategies and heresy13. Woerden agrees that Thompson may have been failed heretic against economic dictates but he distinguished himself from worldly wealth and possessions which is seen as quite logical14. Nevertheless, Thompson was notoriously hard to control and always remained loose cannon with little signs of lasting or genuine bonding social capital. Alternatively, his social capital was replaced by his cult status and his reputation.

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