‘Gonzo’ journalism is a term used for a perceptual style of journalism where the reporter immerses themselves in to the story, they are reporting on form a first-person perspective, showing little regard for competing perspectives, viewpoints or - as many would say - the truth.

 

Perhaps the most important factor in gonzo writing is to entertain, while factual matters are a secondary consideration. This is a difficult to understand for of reporting, particularly to the uninitiated, who may be more familiar with the turgidly repetitive conventional form of news reporting. But, - and this is a big but – for those who read to be entertained, then entertained they were.

 The self-proclaimed originator of the form was the late, great, Hunter S Thompson, who successfully blued the lines between fact and fiction, while creating the intrigue of the first-person account, and kicking off a new journalism movement from the 1960's onwards, that turned a blind eye to specific and long-adhered to rules about what was said by whom, when and so forth.

 A great example of the burgeoning style was the article written my Thompson, called 'Strange rumblings in Altzlan,' in which he wrote about the unlawful killing of a Mexican-American journalist, Rubin Salazar, in LA. It all began simply enough, with a detailed description of how events started in a bar where Rubin sat and the tear gas canister that randomly came through the open door; fatefully hitting him in the head. But then the article took its bizarre and now Bonzo's expected move to the left field, with an excursion to a drugs conference some miles away and a burgeoning story that later developed in to a book. In such articles, the reader is immersed in a conversation about the people being the interviewee, such as their hairstyle's battle with the wind, or a wondering intruder's interest in the subject matter, or - as became normal - the interviewer's battle with completing the interview. The net result in entertainment.

 

The most successful exponent of the form was Hunter s Thompson's "fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," which described the coming to terms with the 1960's social and civil rights movement and the perceived failings of the movement by those who had believed the most in the movement's objectives. I suppose the best way of describing what might make a good gonzo article would be if the eye-witness of an event, who happened to be significantly articulate, gave his very personal description of events, including thoughts he had about anyone evolved, close to, or who might be in some way associated with the vent. This is colourful, interesting, but not traditional fact-based journalism, as we might imagine it.

 

Thompson's now infamous and ground-braking approach, involved injecting himself in to the story, as an equal participant alongside those directly affected by events. Metaphoric outbursts, emotional sub-plots, and tangential anecdotes were all part of the congested mix that made for a thoroughly entertaining read, so long as the reader had no direct interest in the events, or - preferably- had no interest in the exact nature and outcome of the truth in the story.

 In the highly-political publications of today's national newspapers, magazines and msm portals, would mean any attempt at gonzo journalism would fall short of the 'fact-checkers' whose job it is to make sure the information seems objectively political. But that doesn't mean gonzo is dead; indeed, it was never not alive, nor will it be close to death's door, but certainly never dead. You see, gonzo was never about a different kind of journalism. If you ever get time, - and you should - have a read of The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens. Written in 1829 and, utilising many forms of writing until then considered beneath novel writing standards. And yet, what we got was a tale that sold out for several years and several editions later through the 1830's helped kick-start the carrier of the author on to great better thing, such as Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol. So, there will always be a need for the gonzo, but holding the right line between the reality of the story and the ever-lasting pull of telling a bloody good yarn.

 

Gonzo journalism was not just the preserve of Thompson, and the form of journalism has been around before he turned up, but Thompson didn't pretend it was anything else; prepared to sell us a donkey, and having the decency to never suggest there was anything Thoroughbred about that donkey. Check out some of the many Hunter S Thompson articles, stories and pieces written while working for Rolling |Stone magazine (where he had a desk and was the international events reporter until his death in 2006) in particular, but also some of the many other pieces he wrote before he felt he had said all he could say.