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| Written by Alicia Oltuski | |||||
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Jewish Reporting in the Age of New New Journalism In the introduction to his book, "The New New Journalism," (Vintage Books, 2005) Robert S. Boynton argues: "Rigorously reported, psychologically astute, sociologically sophisticated, and politically aware, the New New Journalism may well be the most popular and influential development n the history of American literary nonfiction." Boynton does, indeed, see the present mode of newspaper writing as indicative of a new new journalism. What, then, does this mean for Jewish journalism at this self aware moment in time? Is Jewish journalism merely a refraction of current events, as examined under the prism of Jewish concerns? Certainly, it includes this function. My first experience in journalism took place in high school and involved a Jewish German newspaper that wanted to know about my dual discipline Jewish school. It was more a curiosity driven assignment than anything else. My second journalistic experience also took place in high school. The unheralded task of summer interns at this Jewish newspaper (slightly more attuned to the realities of New York Jewry) was obituary writing. In addition to the quite morbid implications of my daily summer agenda, there is a second reason I remember the task. It is the method by which we, interns, were instructed to come across the relevant (meaning Jewish) deceased. We would refer to the obituaries in other prominent newspapers and pick out the Jewish looking names with interesting obituary potential. We were then obligated to verify that the departed people we were memorializing were, indeed, Jewish. It is only now that I realize how farcical but also telling this little process was. In effect, we interns were sifting through “general” news (albeit departed) for Jewish news. This particular course of action points to a broader assumption that Jewish news finds itself obscured or subcategorized within world news. This is simply not the case. In fact, it is the vociferousness of Jewish current events, both in action and in reception, that hallmarks Jewish news. Jewish events interact with other events, but they also transpire in a separate sphere. I think this week’s Web Wire points to both phenomena—of integration and distinction. In this light, let us recognize the extent to which Jewish news proves separate and interactive with the rest of journalism and that the method of reporting Jewish journalism is virtually non-methodological; it has no formula, so various is the faction of writing we call Jewish journalism.
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