Based on Fact, Fiction and Personal Encounters

GONZO JOURNALISM PIECE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF

LEGAL AND ILLEGAL DRUG USE

The idea behind this project is to create a short story

for an online magazine depicting the experiences had

under the influence of both legal and illegal highs –

thus relating to the previous research project.

Written in the 1st person, this gonzo journalism inspired

piece will be based on fact and fiction, with slight

exaggeration to events that may have happened.

IDEA

This piece will be written

with the intention of

being published in

‘Sabotage Times’.

Launched in 2010, this

online publication is an

eclectic mix of music,

fashion, lifestyle,

culture, art and of

course, short stories.

RESEARCH

The magazine seems to stick to

a very plain white background

and black text format, so colours

and themes are not much of an

issue here.

It is noted that online publications

include taglines and hyperl inks

therefore the fi nished artefact wil l

involve pull quotes and l inks to

other stories (whether or not the l inks

wil l fol low on to real stories wil l be decided

further into the project).

DESIGN

This idea was inspired by various Gonzo Journalism

writers, obviously the most famous author being

Hunter S. Thompson. The inspiration can also be linked

with New Journalism, which is host to authors such as

Lester Bangs.

Bangs and Thompson both wrote for the Rolling Stone

magazine which was considered as a possible

publication to be working towards in terms of the short

story, however there was a limitation as to what 1 st

person articles were ‘supposed’ to be based on.

ANALYSIS OF IDEA

Sabotage Times have an extremely varied team of writers, all

of various ages and with diff erent levels of expertise – they

even give the readers a chance to email their own work

directly to them if they feel it would fi t in with the publication.

The demographic, therefore, is made up of a similar group due

to the fact that the magazine has something for everyone

(near enough).

This is the reason for Sabotage Times being the suitable

choice for the article to be included in because the magazine

off ers such a diverse collection of genres.

SABOTAGE TIMES

The idea of this piece is to get across the point that legal highs are NOT as good as the public perceives them to be.Through research and personal experiences, this conclusion has become apparent and it is something that I, as a photojournalist and as a student who like to socialise, feel very strongly about.I will be including eyewitness accounts and interviews in my writing, with factual elements based on research I conducted previously.

FACT OR FICTION

The article will touch upon illegal drug use as well, agreed, it can be a touchy subject and something of a taboo when it comes to blatantly spelling it out in the 1 s t person, but this is a Gonzo Journalism piece and I feel that if I am trying to get across a serious point from a light-hearted perspective then I need to be somewhat honest with where I have got my fi rst-hand experience.Some parts of the story may be exaggerated for the purpose of entertainment because I’d like this piece to also be of interest to people who do not involve themselves with any form of legal/ illegal substances – therefore it needs to be a humorous and interesting article regardless of the point.I don’t want this to be a strictly straight-laced view on ‘what happens if you do drugs’, that would then be a factual article more suited for a newspaper.

FACT OR FICTION