An Immersive Journey through Flawed Technology: Users’ Perceptions of VR in Journalism

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has had the reputation of being a revolutionising technology ever since it emerged in the early 1960s, but virtual is not yet a successful reality in journalistic practice. Examining VR’s current situation and the factors preventing it from reaching its predicted potential in digital journalism, this paper analyses the user comments (n = 770) on 15 journalistic VR apps offered by media organizations, with the help of a qualitative-reductive content analysis. Deductive categories of analysis contain the constructs of immersion, emotion, usability, and utility, which are further specified by inductive subcategories in the course of the analysis. Results show that users positively highlight different aspects of emotion and immersion that the VR apps elicit, and criticize journalistic VR apps for their low levels of utility and usability. Implications for journalistic practice and research are subsequently drawn.

Restarting virtual reality in journalism? A quantitative analysis of problems and potentials of selected immersive apps as perceived by their users

“…VR apps that focus solely on entertainment, such as applications published by video game companies or film studios, were excluded. The sample is analysed according to the users' comments on the theoretical constructs of immersion, emotion 1 , usability and utility (Godulla, Planer, et al, 2021), and the results aim to answer the proposed hypotheses (H1-H4).…”

“…Similarly, and combining the findings, the question whether positive perceptions of emotion/immersion can exist simultaneously to negative perceptions of utility arose (Godulla, Planer, et al, 2021). It might be that if the technological flaws are too heavy, emotion and immersion cannot be experienced, or users might be too annoyed.…”

“…Additionally, almost all of these apps not only display 360° videos but also create interactive and immersive user experiences. Due to the qualitative-deductive content analysis, all user comments (N = 770) on these 15 VR apps that were available at the time of the project were analysed through a qualitative coding scheme and with the help of four main categories deducted from the considered body of research (Godulla, Planer, et al, 2021). Patterns within the comments were identified and resulted in inductive categories (see Table 3).…”

“…The results of the qualitative analysis of user comments already gave hints as to which aspects the majority of users referred to in a positive tone (immersion & emotion) and which aspects of their VR experience they criticised (usability & utility) and resulted in four hypotheses (Godulla, Planer, et al, 2021) which were further elaborated for this study. The respective study qualitatively showed that users usually commented on aspects of immersion and emotion positively, while they commented on aspects of usability and utility in a more negative manner (Godulla, Planer, et al, 2021). Thus, hypothesis 1 and 2 were formed:…”

Spatial audio and immersive journalism: production, narrative design, and sense of presence

“…This proposal was rapidly embraced by the tech industry and virtual reality (VR) technologies, such as 360-degree video or computer-generated imagery (CGI), and proliferated in newsrooms around the world (Godulla et al, 2021; Marconi; Nakagawa, 2017; Pérez-Seijo, 2017; Pérez-Seijo; Vicente, 2022).…”