Being There in the Midst of the Story: How Immersive Journalism Affects Our Perceptions and Cognitions

Abstract

Immersive journalism in the form of virtual reality (VR) headsets and 360°-video is becoming more mainstream and is much touted for inducing greater "presence" than traditional text. But, does this presence influence psychological outcomes of reading news, such as memory for story content, perceptions of credibility, and empathy felt toward story characters? We propose that two key technological affordances of VR (modality and interactivity) are responsible for triggering three presence-related cognitive heuristics (being-there, interaction, and realism), which influence news readers' memory and their perceptions of credibility, empathy, and story-sharing intentions. We report a 3 (storytelling medium: VR vs. 360°-video vs. Text) × 2 (story: "The displaced" and "The click effect") mixed-factorial experiment, in which participants (N = 129) experienced two New York Times stories (that differed in their emotional intensity) using one of the three mediums (VR, 360°-video, Text). Participants who experienced the stories using VR and 360°-video outperformed those who read the same stories using text with pictures, not only on such presence-related outcomes as being-there, interaction, and realism, but also on perceived source credibility, story-sharing intention, and feelings of empathy. Moreover, we found that senses of being-there, interaction, and realism mediated the relationship between storytelling medium and reader perceptions of credibility, story recall, and story-sharing intention. These findings have theoretical implications for the psychology of virtual reality, and practical applications for immersive journalism in particular and interactive media in general.

Powered by Immersion? Examining Effects of 360-Degree Photography on Knowledge Acquisition and Perceived Message Credibility of Climate Change News

“…This might be especially true if the photograph displays content that is interesting but not relevant for understanding the storyline, as it guides individuals' selective attention away from the main content and confuses their expectation what the story is actually about (Harp & Mayer, 1998; see also Lang, 1995). Recent experimental research corroborates this view, showing that 360-degree technology experienced on a laptop is rather distracting from than supporting a story (Van Damme, All, De Marez, & Van Leuven, 2018), demanding considerable cognitive costs (Sundar, Kang, & Oprean, 2017). The limited capacity model, however, also states that complex stimuli can increase memory for story content by causing an orienting response in news consumers that automatically shifts their attention to the stimulus and elicits additional cognitive resources to the encoding and storing of information (Lang, Bradley, Park, Shin, & Chung, 2006;Lang, Bolls, Potter, & Kawahara, 1999).…”

“…Incorporating more advanced and vivid forms of visualizations such as 360-degree photographs, however, might lead news consumers to divergent evaluations. As a spherical view of the camera's surroundings approximates physical reality more closely, they could trigger the basic rule of "seeing is believing" (Sundar et al, 2017). However, a compelling news experience might promote the positive impression of "novelty" or "coolness" just as well as the negative association of "all flash and no substance" (Sundar, 2008, p. 82).…”

Las secciones y Apps de RV y vídeos 360º a examen. Estudio de caso de siete medios con impacto en Europa

“…De hecho, la finalidad de los vídeos 360º y las experiencias de realidad virtual es permitir a los usuarios "experimentar incidentes y situaciones de primera mano, colocando al espectador en el centro de la experiencia y, por lo tanto, generando la sensación de estar en otro lugar y tiempo, viviendo las vidas y las historias de otras personas" (Soler-Adillon y Sora, 2018, p. 56). Es decir, tener la sensación de "estar ahí", en escena (De la Peña et al, 2010;Domínguez, 2013;Sundar, Kang & Oprean, 2017;Van den Broeck, Kawsar &Schöning, 2017).…”

Dear Pictograph: Investigating the Role of Personalization and Immersion for Consuming and Enjoying Visualizations

“…Immersion has been extensively studied in the virtual reality (VR) research community [35] and demonstrated as a positive engaging factor in immersive journalism [41]. The visualization community recently investigated the potential of immersive technology to provide new ways of representing, interacting and engaging with data [14].…”

“…The second aspect we studied, immersion, is inspired by Immersive Journalism [41]. We hypothesized that people would enjoy being immersed within the data in a virtual reality (VR) environment.…”