In Cold Blood’s Effect on Journalism The definition of journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information (What is Journalism 1). Journalism is when the writer provides information to their audience (the reader). Journalism is storytelling. It has been around for as long as humans have been communicating. The purpose and principal of journalism is the function news plays in people’s lives.
News that keeps us informed and a way of communication about the different events, issues, and what is going on in the world (What is Journalism? . Journalism may be both interesting and engaging, but the best thing you can get out of it is the power of knowledge about things happening around us. The practice of yellow journalism was sensationalism, misleading information to boost newspaper sales and make the public want to read the information (U. S. Diplomacy and Yellow Journalism 1). It was a short biased opinion masquerading as objective fact (U. S. Diplomacy and Yellow Journalism 1). Yellow Journalism is based on exaggeration used to catch the public’s eye and entertain the reader.
The novel In Cold Blood adjusted the way journalist reported and restyled reality into a form of fiction by introducing journalists to the use of creative writing techniques while still following the guidelines of journalism. Before Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel In Cold Blood the public was reading the newspaper. The public relied on journalism to get information about what was happening in the world. The public relied on journalist to keep them informed and keep them updated with the daily news.
In order to increase sales, the newspaper business enjoyed telling people what they wanted to hear even f that meant they had to exaggerate the truth. The author of In Cold Blood said the novel had the real account of the Clutter family murders (Keefe). Since he was writing this novel based on a true event he knew his style of writing had to have a real journalist sense to it (Plimpton). Verisimilitude was going to be the key to making his story seem real. Verisimilitude is the appearance of being true or real. This novel was based on true events, however some things were added into the story to make the story more interesting (Plimpton).
With his use of verisimilitude Truman wrote the topic with the intention of creating a new genre (Plimpton). He intended on trying not to include his perspective in the text (Plimpton). He used this technique to allow the reader come up with their opinion of the event or information. The story is based on a true event with actual facts (Portfolio at NYU). However, things like the conversations between the characters were probably not always true just placed in the story to make the story more interesting (Portfolio at NYU).
In Cold Blood demonstrates that with original novelistic techniques, Capote created a real account of a murder and its results that ended up representing America’s complex society in the 1960s (Johnson, Wolfe). Capote convinces us that his novel is true by always giving us detailed descriptions (Melany 3). He makes us feel like we were there, we witnessed the murders, and got to know the characters (Melany 3). His use of conversation from the people in the town of Holcomb, the investigators, the murders, and the Clutter family makes the novel seem even more factual (Melany 3).
In addition, we are given a lot of facts about the townspeople and the town so it seems like the reader is there actually living in the town (Plimpton). Capote labeled his novel as nonfiction. He said the people believed a narrative form that included all the techniques of fictional art, yet still remained factual, was not a novelist lacking imagination on their part (Plimpton). An excellent piece of narrative reporting needs imagination (Plimpton). He had an eye for visual detail according to Melany.
He did so much research on the case he was able to understand the people involved in the case views on the situation (Melany 3). Capote also said a writer could not be able to write in this genre if he was only good at being a journalist and taking notes and not being creative with his journalistic style (Plimpton). To be a good creative reporter you must be a good fictional writer too (Plimpton). A nonfiction novel should not contain an author’s personal bias (Plimpton). The author should place his imagination before facts (Plimpton). Capote changed a journalist named Melany views on writing.
According to her he did a great job factually reporting the amount needed in journalism while still remaining creative while telling the story (Melany 1). She said her mind was blown after finding out the book took six years for him to research and write (Melany 1). He created a well researched story while managing to be entertaining (Melany 1). According to another journalist named Garson his novel gives the readers facts “in a straightforward newspaper fashion, but remains giving an artistic view to details” (Melany 2).
Newspaper journalist Connery describes his non fiction style as “a report that reads like fiction”. Melany 2). In Capote’s work he uses four common narrative techniques that makes his novel a nonfiction story. He uses detailed scene construction, complete dialogue from interviews instead of subjective quotes, his point of view variation, and his execution of details about the characters in the text (Melany 2). It was impossible for Capote to include all of the facts from all of his research. The way Capote chooses the facts he wants to include and the ones he decides to leave out can be thought of as crafting the truth (Melany 2).
This book impacted the newspaper business by inspiring journalist and authors to want to write books using facts while carefully choosing the details they want to use to keep the story entertaining (The Beginnings of New Journalism). This novel made some people in society question this new form of non-fiction (Plimpton). Especially after the novel came out people that were citizens of Holcomb and some of the people that were apart of the investigation saw points in the novel that were over exaggerated and were completely made up (Plimpton).
