philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

New Report: Virtual Reality Journalism (Columbia School of Journalism)

Third, we draw a series of findings from the case study, which together document the opportunities and challenges we see emerging from this new technology. These findings are detailed in Chapter 4, but can be summarized as:

1. Virtual reality represents a new narrative form, one for which technical and stylistic norms are in their infancy.

2. The VR medium challenges core journalistic questions evolving from the fourth wall debate, such as “who is the journalist?” and “what does the journalist represent?”

3. A combination of the limits of technology, narrative structure, and journalistic intent determine the degree of agency given to users in a VR experience.

4. The technology requirements for producing live-motion virtual reality journalism are burdensome, non-synergistic, rapidly evolving, and expensive.

5. At almost every stage of the process, virtual reality journalism is presented with tradeoffs that sit on a spectrum of time, cost, and quality.

6. The production processes and tools are mostly immature, are not yet well integrated, or common; the whole process from capture through to viewing requires a wide range of specialist, professional skills.

7. At this point in the medium’s development, producing a piece of virtual reality media requires a complete merger between the editorial and production processes.

8. Adding interactivity and user navigation into a live-motion virtual reality environment is very helpful for journalistic output, and also very cumbersome.

9. High-end, live motion virtual reality with added interactivity and CGI elements is very expensive and has a very long production cycle.

10. This project’s form is not the only one possible for journalistic VR. Others, including immediate coverage, may be accessible, cheaper, and have journalistic value.

See the full story here: http://towcenter.org/new-report-virtual-reality-journalism/?curator=MediaREDEF