3 ways in which immersive journalism is going to change the world

The age of Virtual reality has just started. Brands and media houses are looking for ideas to adapt virtual reality in their content. Many have succeeded and have created benchmark while others are just waiting for the technology to evolve and go to a level where they can adapt their idea into something worthwhile.

When it comes to adapting to virtual reality in the daily content, there is no other field which has the potential to use VR like journalism has. The process of taking the audience at the site of the news and then connect with them in a much deeper way is called immersive journalism and it has a lot of potential. Here are some of the reasons why it is believed so.

Greater empathy is achieved – Virtual reality product’s success depends on the empathy of the user. The scale at which an individual experiencing the VR content is able to feel the power of the story and connect with it on an emotional level is known as empathy. A VR documentary or a news report has the capability to do that because they show content from the events of real life.

Call to action gets a better response – Only virtual reality guarantees that the audience will respond to call to action button. With TV or radio, there is no guarantee that the audience will pick their phones and register their opinions. But since VR content comes with a CTA and all the viewer needs to do is to click on the desired option, the response is higher.

You get to catch the viewer’s interest – Depth in storytelling catches the interest of the viewer. Just like in virtual reality filmmaking, the aim is to indulge the audience into the content. If the content is good, the audience won’t realize that they have travelled into a different world.

Because of advantages like these, Virtual Reality has a lot of potential in news and journalism.

3D Virtual Reality Takes Entertainment to the next Level

Virtual reality is all about immersive storytelling. It takes viewers to a different place, a different time in a jiffy. The experience is described as extraordinary by those who enjoy watching stuff in VR. When you watch a story in virtual reality, nothing or no one matters. You are right there, watching the drama unfold right before your eyes. It’s an immersive platform and holds immense potential for engaging storytelling. Be it games, documentaries, or news, everything that has been delivered using this platform has been well received. Needless to say, virtual reality is taking entertainment to a new high.

The immersive quality is a huge draw when it comes to 3D virtual reality. It is being successfully used for non-fiction genres. It being a new territory, a lot remains to be learnt and explored. Given the array of affordable VR headsets and equipment coming into the market, virtual reality films will soon be accessible to one and all. Its quality to isolate viewers from everything around makes it a very powerful platform for storytellers.

VR production companies are employing the sense of presence virtual reality offers. The feeling of being on top of the mountain or swimming under the ocean is easily possible thanks to virtual reality. It puts viewers right inside the story as if they are physically there, absorbing everything happening around them. This first-person feeling is phenomenal when you are watching larger than life movies or viewing moving stories.

With the mere turn of the head, you can actually change the scenes you are watching thereby causing a profound shift in how the story is told. Basically, you are in control and it is you who decides what you want to see. This kind of power makes the whole experience even more intimate and engaging. Choice and interactivity are in fact one of the major reasons why VR content is becoming so popular. While traditional storytellers are still a little apprehensive of giving control to viewers, the more modern ones have embraced virtual reality with open arms.

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.

Why is virtual reality filmmaking gaining popularity?

Today, virtual reality covers a wide range of audiences. This technology has been changing on a constant basis and it is also being used in the film making procedure. There are many different ways in which virtual reality is changing film making. Film makers are getting a new way to explore complex narratives with the help of this technology.

What is VR?

VR or virtual reality is a new form of experiencing video content. This technology immerses the viewer in the middle of a situation or scene through a headset that the viewer needs to wear over his/her eyes. After wearing the headset, the viewer can look around in any direction in virtual reality rather than viewing a movie passively. Viewers can choose what they want to focus on and even walk though a scene if they wish to. 

360 video is the simplest form of virtual reality which can be easily viewed on a tablet, computer scree or the smartphone. The user can look around them in 360 degrees by moving the screen. The user can also use a headset and move their range of view for a more immersive experience. 

How VR is being used in the film industry?

Besides gaming, entertainment and journalism, virtual realty has also gained new currency in the mainstream film industry. Directors are embracing VR for creating immersive experiences in order to draw more audiences. They are using the technology for re-inventing cinematic practices because VR is giving them the opportunity to complement as well as push the traditional fold of storytelling. 

Through virtual reality filmmaking, viewers are getting to enjoy an experience they have never had before. They are not just watching a story, they are in that story because directors are using VR or 3D virtual reality to create an environment that can be explored and not just watched. Viewers are able to control where they want to look, when and how they want to look and so on. 

In virtual reality filmmaking, the timelines are more flexible. When compared to regular filmmaking, viewers can look at different things or different paths as many times as they want to. They can jump in for 72 hours or even 72 seconds compared to regular filmmaking in which every theatrical release is 72 minutes or more. 

With virtual reality, camera movements also change in filmmaking. Since virtual reality is immersive, some camera movements can give motion sickness to viewers. The camera can be moved; however, there are certain limitations on how it can be done. In this type of filmmaking, the camera control can shift from the filmmaker to the viewer or it can be a combination of both. There is still a lot to experiment as far as camera movements in virtual reality is concerned.

Virtual reality is gaining popularity like never before. It is getting more intricate and precise due to which it is being used in various other industries beyond entertainment and gaming.