Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 37

JouiTialism^UielWO^

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described at length what transpired, but generally without
interpretation or opinion. Instead, the goal was for the readers to
draw their own conclusions about the significance of the social fact.
The artists tried to capture life as it unfolded, utilizing camera-like
techniques of observation and description. Extensive conversations
also were re-created, letting the subject's words speak for themselves
without embellishment from the writers. Although a first-person
narrative was used in various passages of their books, Wilson,
Anderson, Dreiser, and Agee usually strove for a neutrality that they
believed would prevent a skewing of reality. In today's context,
notions of "pure" objectivity have come under sharp scrutiny, with a
number of sociologists viewing journalists as participants in the social
construction of reality. From the sociological perspective, reporters
order reality through subjective experience or societal preconceptions
(Schudson, 1978; Altheide, 1976).
The travel motif evident in most of these documentaries
reflected the writers' quest for the meaning and significance of the
Depression years. The journey undertaken in the gathering of social
facts—the lonely highways traveled, the hitchhikers picked up,
the cafes frequented during rest stops, the drives into hill country and
coal mining regions—^became a symbolic narrative element. Wilson,
Anderson, Dreiser, and Agee searched for an America that no longer
made sense to them. Their hope was to regain an understanding of the
American experience by viewing it from the perspective of the
common person. Wilson and Dreiser found a country ravaged by
excessive capitalism and uncontrolled competitiveness. Anderson's
reportage, however, lauded individualism and human dignity in a
time of social upheaval. Agee, meanwhile, found complacency to
human suffering at the heart of the demise of the American Dream.
Arizona State University

Works Cited

Dennis Russell

Agee, lames. (1941). Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Boston: HoughtonMifflinCo.
Altheide, David L. (1976). Creating Reality: How TV News Distorts Events.
Beverly Hills: Sage.
Andersom Sherwood. (19%). Hometown. New York: Alliance Book
(Zomoration.
--------- . (1947). The Sherwood Anderson Reader. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co.