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Truman Capote's Journalistic Report

Decent Essays

The dividing line between what defines historical facts, in all of their glorious accuracy, and historical fiction, with its various twists and turns in perception, has been blurred as trends in literary style and journalism have evolved. It could be easily said that there is no such thing as historical nonfiction within the literary world because of all the historical evidence we posses of past events and experiences, each of these historical revelations were produced from the hands of a fallible human; those which cannot be separated from the bias that comprises them and lulled into objectivity. Since history has been written, interpreted, and influenced by the assumptions, opinions, and prejudices of some of the most self-proclaimed devotedly objective individuals, we can be assured that straight facts within the literary world are nonexistent. This is only the beginning of why I believe that the role of the journalist in the news media should be to present the straight facts (rather than an opinionated report) to his or her audience. By observing the clever penmanship of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, and by taking note of today's trends in media, we shall be able to unveil the critical nature of the journalist's true role. Both Capote's …show more content…

Newspapers, news channels, magazines, and news websites are all sources of subjective content. Some sources are more liberal, while others are more conservative. Some sources only report topics and tidbits of information which would appeal to the audience to the extent of their pocketbooks, so the whole truth is often excluded. A majority of today's media could be synonymous with the themes of In Cold Blood and The Armies of the Night. It is a common feat nowadays to present each journalistic account through the lens of an opinionated perspective, and to do away with the “straight facts,” which I believe are crucial to the role of a

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