Blog 2
Michelle Klug
Ted Conover
Ten Conover is considered one of the best of the new new journalists not only because of his writing style but of his technique of completely submerging himself in the culture he is documenting at the time. This participant-observer style usually means a complete change of lifestyle for Conover, especially coming from the upper-middle class. For his senior thesis at Amherst, Conover gave up all if his luxuries and became a train-riding hobo in order to document this subculture of traveling non-conformists. Out of this came Rolling Nowhere (1984). He did the same thing for Coyotes(1987), where he traveled around with illegal Mexican immigrants, crossing the border multiple times. For Whiteout (1991), Conover worked as a reporter and cab driver to document Aspen’s celebrity culture. Again for NewJack (2000), Conover got a job as prison guard at Sing Sing in order to observe the subculture of prison guards. Conover documents subcultures that are foreign to most readers with an unbiased tone, neither pitying, or praising, simply documenting their lifestyle.
Although Conover never studied journalism, he worked at a variety of small newspapers when he was younger. Conover instead took a liking to Anthropology, which he credits to be what sparked his interest in seemingly insignificant subcultures. He chooses to saturate himself in the subculture’s environment to get all of the unseen, unspoken, hidden detail that a simple interview can’t get. He thinks that the emotional toll is worth it to get a good story.
Conover always has an unbiased attitude going in. He credits this to his grade school days where he was bussed in to an interracial school in which he was the minority. He describes this as “liberating”.
He chooses his stories based on which groups have conflict and change. He then finds the appropriate place and job in order to properly observe his subjects. For NewJack, he completed 7 weeks of training and then worked as a prison guard for 10 months to complete his story. He had to be in complete secret or else he would have been fired or worse. For Coyotes, he traveled with immigrants for 9 months, crossing the border multiple times.
Conover’s strategy for getting a good story is to try and fit in as much as possible, becoming the character in outward appearance without crossing the line of being so submerged in the lifestyle that you forget to observe. He claims he is always himself although admitting a lot of it is performance based.
Conover prefers interviews in person to observe a person’s body language and actions. He relies in small spiral notebooks, which he writes down notes in, while undercover. He opens conversation by first speaking about himself and his past, which gives his subject a sense of trust then asking leading questions.
When Conover feels he has enough information to answer the questions he went in with, he will begin transcribing his notes and start the writing process. He claims that he lies in bed until he can create an outline on what he is going to write for the day. He then goes through his many pages of notes and highlights the important parts he wishes to include. Once he is organized, Conover tries to write straight through a section without going back to correct. He only writes at 3-hour increments maximum. And at the end of the day he writes himself a note in capital letters on what he wants himself to accomplish the next day.
Conover claims one of his major influences to be John Krakauer, George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He is hopeful about long form new journalism even though he sees the determent of it in recent magazines such as Rolling Stone. Conover is currently still writing books and working for the New Yorker.
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