Gonzo Journalism Piece on the Experiences of Legal and Illegal Drug Use

1. Gonzo Journalism Piece on the Experiences of Legal and Illegal Drug Use Based on Fact, Fiction and Personal Encounters

2. Idea 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.

3. Research 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.

4. Design 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 hyperlinks therefore the finished artefact will involve pull quotes and links to other stories (whether or not the links will follow on to real stories will be decided further into the project).

5. Analysis of idea 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 1st person articles were ‘supposed’ to be based on.

6. Sabotage times Sabotage Times have an extremely varied team of writers, all of various ages and with different levels of expertise – they even give the readers a chance to email their own work directly to them if they feel it would fit 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 offers such a diverse collection of genres.

7. Fact or fiction 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.

8. 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 1st 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 first-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.