Wednesday 28 March 2018

How Eager Are You to Experience Non-fiction Virtual Reality?

There have often been debates and discussions about virtual reality. Although there are all kinds of opinions, the fact remains that virtual reality has captured the imagination of viewers across the world in a big way. We can say that virtual reality in India and in other countries has become mainstream as it’s always around us no matter where we go. Every time we go shopping, we see it being used. That’s not all, it has changed the way we play games online or conduct our business. The sense of being in a place without actually being there has opened up an exciting world of opportunities to ambitious entrepreneurs and business owners worldwide.

We experience non-fiction virtual reality in different forms. The immersive experience that it gives users leaves them wanting for more. It is being looked upon as the next big computing platform. Of course, it does necessitate specific equipment. As people continue to understand and leverage the benefits of virtual reality, they will soon upgrade to better software and devices to enjoy a more gratifying VR experience. Gamers are already investing in expensive gadgets and virtual reality games have become common. Be it a crazy car chase or an intense war game, VR offers incredible ways to play and enjoy your favorite game. 

Apart from games, virtual reality journalism is also becoming popular. Films, music, sports, fashion, education, and training are other areas that are leveraging virtual reality for effective promotion and storytelling. Experts are seeing tremendous potential in virtual reality for the education industry. How exciting it would be if students could travel to faraway destinations as part of their field-trips and learn something new and exciting about a place they may never visit in reality. 

The possibilities are limitless and virtual reality is all set to challenge your perceptions about the world around you. It’s time to open up and embrace non-fiction VR. Be it for documentaries, news or educational projects, VR companies are employing virtual reality effectively to enhance your experience. All you need to do is invest in the right equipment.

Thursday 22 March 2018

All You Need to know about Immersive Journalism

In immersive journalism, you get first person experience of situations and events that are described in documentary films or news reports. With the help of ‘immersive technologies’ a sense of ‘being there’ is created. It allows an individual to engage with a story personally, placing them into the event directly. 

Under immersive journalism, one gets to enter a virtually recreated scenario that has been created to represent a particular story. Constructed as computer graphic imagery (CGI), it is easy to insert virtual environments into online virtual worlds. There are various characteristics of immersive journalism. For instance, it includes audience that participates spatially in the story, audio, images and environment that contextualises the story, illusion of a place that is related to where a particular event has occurred and a story that reflects good journalistic practices. 

According to the industry experts, immersive journalism has the potential to drive changes in the media industry. For many years, journalists have been trying their best to identify ways in which the audiences can be better connected to serious events that happen across the globe. They wish to do this in order to build a better understanding and empathy. This is one of the main reasons why many media organisations are turning to virtual reality technology to achieve this goals. For instance, media organisations such as Outside Magazine and Discovery have launched VR initiatives of their own. 

Immersive journalism is getting popular; however, questions of transparency and ethics are also growing among scholars and journalists. This is because media companies are now experimenting with the VR technology and AR (Augmented Reality). With these technologies, it becomes easy for users to interact personally with news reports through virtual screens that can be viewed through VR headsets. 

Another challenges of virtual reality journalism is that it can become difficult to prevent dishonest organisation or individuals from producing fake virtual reality work and passing it off as original. Some media ethicists are also worried about the high cost that goes into creating immersive journalism experience. Experts believe that in order to curb dishonest organisation from making fake VR news, it is necessary that people doing VR journalism should have an ethical code. This code should be published by them and they should also explain their ethics. It will be better if the viewers are aware of the details of the VR piece and whether or not it is scripted.  

Virtual reality technology is getting more intricate and precise with time. Not just journalism but virtual reality filmmaking has also become a trend. Even film makers are taking advantage of this technology. They are creating an immersive sensation besides just the experience of sound and sight. Instead of just creating a scene to be watched, film makers are using virtual reality to create an environment that can be explored by the user. This gives the viewer the liberty to control the viewing experience and choose where to look and how to interact.