Immersion requires that you choose a situation -- any situation to which you can gain reasonable access. Then you enter the situation and report from it, on it.
The situation could be anything, really -- a workplace, a public event, the life of a public or private figure (with permission, of course), an activity you've always been curious about but never tried.
Once you choose your situation, you immerse yourself in it and in the lives of the people/person involved. You'll use firsthand reportage to cover the story. You'll use research and backgrounding to put the story in context for both yourself and your readers. You'll use basic narrative techniques -- scene, dialogue, description, luminous detail -- to bring the experience alive for readers.
Immersion is a personal kind of reportage -- the I in the story is the I who's reporting the story. However, it's unlike Gonzo journalism in that it's not completely personality- or ego-driven. It is less focused on you, your life, your feelings and more focused on the experience itself.
Examples of popular recent immersion journalism include Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights.
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