Anne Hull: Stories of "New Journalism"

Anne Hull operates on a model of “new journalism.” This is a method of journalism that doesn’t involve sitting at a desk. It doesn’t involve making dozens upon dozens of phone calls, or conferencing with other reporters and editors day in and day out. No, while all of these things play a role, Hull describes new journalism simply as where you “get the hell out of the office and go live with somebody.”

Hull has operated using these methods for a wide variety of stories in her career, including her Pulitzer Prize winning investigative piece on the neglect of war-wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And while it is a somewhat unconventional strategy, it’s hardly surprising coming from someone who describes her own path as an “unconventional way of growing up as a journalist.” Hull dropped out of college at Florida State University after only one year and landed her first job working at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. Since early on, she says, “I knew that writing was something I wanted to do.” In St. Petersburg, she was given “hard-hitting, intense, gritty feature stories” and this formed a foundation for her writing later in her career. Largely due to this somewhat unconventional entry into journalism, she found herself taking risks and going places journalists hadn’t gone before with their writing, using a very intimate form of reporting.

Speaking in a communications class at American University on Monday, Hull described her unique career path and discussed multiple examples of her writing in depth. The piece that garnered the most focus in the discussion was “The Strawberry Girls,” published in The New Yorker in August. Set in Plant City, Fla., where Hull grew up, the story is focused on a small southern town getting “eaten up by development,” facing its racist, old-fashioned traditions and sociological quirks, all in the context of an annual beauty pageant. Hull explained how she asked to spend two weeks with the girls participating in the pageant, and how she was almost forced to just sit back and observe at times, so as to get adjusted to their culture and be more productive in her reporting. She described the experience as being “almost like a documentary photographer instead of a journalist,” because of the observational nature of the work.

The conversation between Hull and the communications students weaved back and forth between different articles and strategies in reporting. She explained techniques such as writing extremely quickly – instead of shorthand, a laptop, or a recording device – and having to “pick your soldiers,” in regards to being selective when choosing characters to focus on in a story. Hull even described how she tries to keep her work and personal relationships separate, and how her writing style was forced to adapt to the style of The New Yorker, as opposed to other publications.

Hull’s experiences reporting are unique indeed, and have led to some amazing successes. Despite her lack of formal post-secondary education, she uses her “unconventional” path into journalism and her “new journalism” style to her advantage, making the most of every opportunity she wanders in to. Her experiential pieces are her hallmark, and, given her past accomplishments, definitely worth keeping your eyes open for.