Conceptualising Immersive Journalism

Book excerpt: This book presents the history of virtual reality and its introduction into journalism, exploring the challenges posed by pushing to make the experience of news a full body event. The problem of interpretation versus objectivity is discussed, as well as the associated ethical responsibilities. Immersive journalism offers the vicarious reliving of a news event with the full body through virtual reality technologies. As virtual reality devices become more accessible, major news organizations such as the New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, and many more are starting to experiment with this new form of journalism. This book discusses theoretical issues significant to immersive journalism’s goal of using virtual reality to transport audiences into a news site. These include ethical issues concerning image manipulation and the place of the audience’s body in the presentation of a news event. To approach these issues, the book presents foundational concepts of VR technologies that have helped establish the achievability of being virtually present in a simulated reality, as well as current research about immersive media’s manipulative potential. Using a case-based analysis of how immersive journalism clashes or coincides with the goals of journalism in democratic societies, the book examines the possibilities and ethics of such experiences in journalism and news. Original and intellectually provocative, Conceptualizing Immersive Journalism is an important study of this emerging field for students, scholars and researchers in the areas of Journalism and Media Studies.