1st Edition

Immersive Journalism as Storytelling Ethics, Production, and Design

Edited By Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones, Esa Sirkkunen Copyright 2021
    212 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    212 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book sets out cutting-edge new research and examines future prospects on 360-degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives.

    Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry. Aside from generating deeper emotional reactions and global perspectives, the book demonstrates how it can also diversify and upskill the news industry. Further contributions address the challenges, examining how immersive storytelling calls for reassessing issues of journalism ethics and truthfulness, transparency, privacy, manipulation, and surveillance, and questioning what it means to cover reality when a story is told in virtual reality. Chapters are grounded in empirical data such as content analyses and expert interviews, alongside insightful case studies that discuss Euronews, Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria, and The New York Times’ NYTVR application.

    This book is written for journalism teachers, educators, and students, as well as scholars, politicians, lawmakers, and citizens with an interest in emerging technologies for media practice.

    The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780367713294, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

    1. Introduction: What is Immersive Journalism?
    2. Part I: Storytelling

    3. Exploring the Immersive Journalism Landscape
    4. Esa Sirkkunen, Jorge Vázquez-Herrero, Turo Uskali, and Heli Väätäjä

    5. Case Euronews: A Low-Cost Approach to Immersive Storytelling
    6. Joakim Vindenes and Astrid Gynnild

    7. Global Perspectives of Immersive Journalism
    8. Sarah Jones

      Part II: Ethics

    9. The Impact of Emotions in Immersive Journalism
    10. Turo Uskali and Pasi Ikonen

    11. Project Syria: Accuracy in Immersive Journalism
    12. Siri Flatlandsmo and Astrid Gynnild

    13. Promises and Perils in Immersive Journalism
    14. Deborah G. Johnson

    15. It’s Not Just about Empathy: Going beyond the Empathy Machine in Immersive Journalism
    16. Sarah Jones

      Part III: Production and Design

    17. Place-Based Journalism, Aesthetics, and Branding
    18. David O. Dowling

    19. Case Study: Creating A Business Value in Immersive Journalism
    20. Ilona Ilvonen, Joel Vanhalakka and Nina Helander

    21. The Hierarchy of Needs for User Experiences in Virtual Reality
    22. Chelsea Kelling, Heli Väätäjä, Otto Kauhanen, Jussi Karhu, Markku Turunen, Vesa Lindqvist, and Pasi Ikonen 

    23. Immersive Gaming as Journalism
    24. Jonne Arjoranta, Raine Koskimaa and Marko Siitonen

    25. Augmented Reality as News
    26. Pasi Ikonen and Turo Uskali

      Part IV: Education

    27. Teaching Immersive Journalism
    28. Turo Uskali and Pasi Ikonen  

    29. Immersive Journalism as Witnessing
    30. Lars Nyre and Joakim Vindenes

    31. Forecasting Future Trajectories for Immersive Journalism 

    Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Esa Sirkkunen, and Sarah Jones

    Biography

    Turo Uskali is an Associate Professor and Head of the Journalism program at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research and teaching focus on the interplay of innovations and journalism, and the future of media industries.

    Astrid Gynnild is a Professor and Head of the Journalism Research Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Principal Investigator of the ViSmedia project. Her current research and teaching focus is on visual journalism, new technologies, and innovation foresight.

    Sarah Jones is Deputy Dean at De Montfort University, UK. Sarah is listed in the top 15 global influencers in VR, is a Google Jump Creator, and has advised the UK Government on immersive technology. Sarah has published extensively on immersive and emerging media.

    Esa Sirkkunen works as a senior researcher at Research Centre COMET at the Tampere University, Finland. His research focuses on assemblages of digital technologies and journalism, and on broader themes like social theory, privacy, and freedom of speech.

    The editors of this book suggest that immersive journalism is expanding internationally and providing various new approaches to communicating news stories and attracting audiences. The book defines immersive journalism as the use of technologies, such as the 360 camera, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality, and similar techniques, to tell news stories. Most of these immersive journalism tools are the result of recent advances in mobile phone cameras and audio and video technologies. The book includes 16 chapters from 19 contributors who provide examples of how immersive journalism is practiced and analyze the implications of immersive tools for journalism ethics and international mass communication education. One chapter supplies a helpful survey of VR users and suggests that VR practitioners should focus on nurturing viewers' emotional ties to the subject matter. The book is a good companion to David O. Dowling's Immersive Longform Storytelling: Media, Technology, Audience (2019). The editors provide references at the ends of chapters and an index. Recommended for higher-education journalism and mass communication programs.

    --R. A. Logan, emeritus, University of Missouri--Columbia