The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

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I just figured out that what I’m trying to do with ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is Immersion Journalism or Gonjo Journalism.

Both styles of journalism involve immersing oneself in a situation and writing about the events and people involved in the experience from a deeply personal perspective. Gonzo journalism is more focused on the writer’s life, while immersion journalism is more focused on the writer’s specific experiences.

Edward Humes, Steve Weinberg and Bill Kirtz offer how-to tips on immersion journalism –

The heart and soul of narrative nonfiction is in the reporting, not the writing. But there is a danger inherent in this process: Immersing in a subject tends to generate an almost impossible amount of information, devoid of structure other than what you, the writer, impose upon it.

First, though, you have to get to the point where you have the time and luxury to think about bringing order out of chaos. You have to get there first, you have to get inside your chosen world.

There is a process I use, though I’m sure everyone who does this sort of writing has their own unique method. Mine is a bit like the five stages of grief. (Edward Humes)

In journalism, time sometimes equals truth. Tom Wolfe, in a 1972 essay, called this patient, deep reporting an “essential first move” because scenes, not just disparate facts, are necessary to write compelling narrative. “Therefore,” Wolfe wrote, “your main problem as a reporter is, simply, managing to stay with whomever you are writing about long enough for the scenes to take place before your own eyes . . . The initial problem is always to approach total strangers, move in on their lives in some fashion, ask questions you have no natural right to expect answers to, ask to see things you weren’t meant to see . . . Many journalists find it so ungentlemanly, so embarrassing, so terrifying even, that they are never able to master this.” (Steve Weinberg)

When deciding whom to follow, look for texture, vulnerability, contradiction, a clear line of action that will engage the reader and reveal character and theme.

Zoom in. Find a simple frame. Follow one love struck teen, not the whole seventh grade.

Get the details: the dog’s name, the song title, the brand of the beer.

Keep asking: for their diary, for the contents of their purse. Never assume your subject will say no. Time and again, you’ll find that people are more generous and brave than you would imagine. (Bill Kirtz quoting Tom French)

Reading about immersion journalism has made me think: how would I write ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ if I was not the marketer who went off consumption? It’s an almost impossible question to answer, but I’ll need to answer it, if I don’t want to end up with two hundred pages of empty ego-tripping.

By the way, Metafilter has an interesting thread on books written in the immersion journalism style. It’s a good list.

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