Factory Girls is an example of immersion journalism. Immersion journalism involves more depth than traditional newspaper reporting, which is limited by column space and time, and includes less of the reporter's own thoughts and reactions to events. Classic examples include Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966), Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), and George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (1952). More recent examples include Nickel & Dimed and Self-Made Man.
The style is related to but different from New Journalism, which developed in the 1960s and 70s and was first described by Tom Wolfe. New Journalism, which tends to be found in magazines, not newspapers, uses dialogue, the first-person point of view, scenes and everyday details about the subjects' lives, referred to as "status detail".
Narrative journalism, literary journalism, and creative nonfiction are sometimes used synonymously to refer to New Journalism, ...