At a time when journalism seems crowded with celebrities, literary journalism pays respect to ordinary lives. Literary journalists write narratives focused on everyday events that bring out the hidden patterns of community life as tellingly as the spectacular stories that make headlines….Stories about wandering, work, and family—about the things that happen all the time—can reveal the structures and the strains of real life. They say more about most citizens’ lives than do stories of singular disasters or quirky celebrities.
—From “The Art of Literary Journalism,” by Norman Sims, part of the book Literary Journalism, published in 1995 by Ballantine Books.
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P.S. Good journalism about the patterns of community life also is being done by many newspapers, especially those in smaller cities and towns.
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