The “New Journalism” (T Wolfe, H Thompson, T Crouse) of the mid-sixties-early seventies in the USA developed a new style of reporting borrowing to the skills of novelists but developing in depth investigations on the changes that were simmering, sometimes boiling, in the US politics, social movements and lifestyles. After an eclipse of a few years, this new style of reporting found a new momentum with the contributions of reporters – sometimes coined as the “new-new journalists”. With a less “pyrotechnic” style of writing, these reporters (J Harr, J Krakauer, E Schlosser to mention some of them) developed new investigations targeting for instance the situation o illegal immigrants, poor workers, the race relations in the USA. Based on in-depth investigations, “immersion journalism” but also on the use of academic sources and researches, this kind of reporting offers a critical light on some dark dimensions of the American society. As they are based on intensive fieldwork (sometimes deeper that many academic research) and allow sometimes a stimulating understanding of social groups or social changes which are rarely covered by the press and media, these reports and books invite to question their relationship to social sciences. Are they social science by another way? Are they able to supply a more comprehensive approach of social stakes than academic research? Conversely do they have flaws and limits who question the legitimacy of a comparison with academic research? My contribution, based on the analysis of approximately fifty books published between the mid sixties and today, will face these questions and explore one of the most interesting innovations in contemporary journalistic practices
