The phenomenon of “new journalism” is studied, which is a hybrid form of creativity that arose at the intersection of journalism and literature, and we consider it in connection with not only “literature of fact” in broad sense (non-fiction), but also separately with newspaper and magazine fiction publicistics and screen documentary, which includes documentary films and documentary and publicistic and sensational entertainment TV programs. Similarities, differences and effects of two types of media narrative — verbal and audiovisual — are established on the material of T. Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood”, domestic court essays, documentaries — “Supreme Court” of H. Franc and “Into the Abyss. A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life” of W. Herzog, as well as modern crime-law TV shows. The specified content is united by a specific genre of “true crime.”