Abstract

Scholarship in the twentieth century witnessed considerable advancement, with the strange and unusual emergence and integration of disciplines to advance knowledge. Because no discipline is an encyclopedia of knowledge, the need to complement individual lacunae in studies is indubitably a reason for some of these collaborations, just as individual fields have borrowed considerably from one another. Similarly, individuals’ changing views and needs as society advances are at the heart of emerging research. The humanities and sciences have evident integrations such as literature and medicine, literature and new media, and literature and gender. All these are responses to apparent gaps in other disciplines that literature has bridged. However, this article investigates the pleasant and endearing relationship between the fields of literature and the news media as encapsulated in New Journalism, using Helon Habila’s “Waiting for an Angel” (2002) as an indicator. While challenging the contemporary fourth estate in Nigeria, the article appraises New Journalism. It explores the possibilities of deploying the resources of literature to strengthen journalism and media studies in the country and calls for the creation of the department of New Journalism that embodies these possibilities.