After spending time reading articles on news criticality and truthfulness, I came across an article written by Nonny de la Peña on Immersive Journalism. So what is Immersive Journalism? Immersive Journalism in this context is the use of digitized tools, such as Virtual Reality (VR) to mediate news content and information. To further elaborate on an example that uses VR, an individual is given a headset to wear and experiences a virtual event that has been generated through a computer mimicking a real-life event but using digitality to represent the information of an actual event that has occurred, such as a person having a seizure. You are able to witness the person having the seizure but only in the virtual realm. This has evoked a lot of reactions to how one experiences an event, meaning that the medium of information becomes a foundational pillar to the experience itself. As Marshall McLuhan would say, “the medium is the message”. My question is the following, through using Virtual Reality, are we able to reach a new level of compassion when consuming news and information? will immersive journalism become the better alternative medium of news circulation?
This is an Open Badges UBC pilot project.
