Virtual Reality and Immersive Journalism

The Concept of Virtual Reality Virtual reality is when you leave this current reality and immerse yourself in another. You often do that with a head mounted display, HMD, that shuts you off from the current physical world and ports you into another immersed world, but one where you can interact with, walk around in, at some point maybe smell and taste.

Similar concept: Augmented Reality Virtual reality, properly defined, creates environments that allow people to be present in an alternative environment. Augmented reality starts with the real world and overlays virtual objects and information with spherical or 360- degree video, which captures an entire scene in which the viewer can look up, down and around.

Together they are called the immersive journalism when used for news. Molly Swenson, the chief operating officer of RYOT says, “Virtual reality affords us the opportunity to see the world through a fresh pair of eyes.” “You are seeing, hearing and sensationally stepping inside a moment, a place, a community other than your own.

They used to look like these.

Game industry was the pioneer It’s been with us since 1985, when former Atari programmer Jaron Lanier experimented with some of the first VR headsets. There have been several failed attempts to commercialize VR, most famously Nintendo’s Virtual Boy in 1994, which is best known for making people feel motion sickness after playing Mario Tennis for a few minutes

Stereoscopic video & a new generation of headsets Oculus Rift Headset 2012 Mobile display headset

Choices of HMD now

Choice of cameras

The most recent development in journalism. In September 2014, The Des Moines Register launched “Harvest of Change,” which immersed the viewer in the world of an Iowa farming family, and later streamed live spherical video of 19 presidential candidates speaking at the Iowa State Fair. In October 2015. The New York Times distributed more than 1 million cardboard virtual reality viewers and released an app showing a spherical video. The Displaced In 2016, The Washington Post landed people next to a crater on Mars

Recent development continued. USA TODAY NETWORK VR Stories took visitors on a ride-along in the "Back to the Future” car on the Universal Studios lot and on a spin through Old Havana in a bright pink ’57 Ford. ABC News went to North Korea for a spherical view of a military parade and to Syria to see artifacts threatened by war. Inside North Korea

What types of stories are they? Go where people can’t go easily. Let the audience experience. Empathy

Huge potential ahead Facebook 360 and YouTube 360 are leading the way in providing simple ways to upload and use basic viewers to look at spherical video in VR. Industry analysts are predicting that up to 34 million headsets will be sold in 2020. By 2020, Digi-Capital predicts that the augmented and virtual reality market may reach $150 billion in sales.

Three ways to view 360 video On Window or Mac PC Cell phone: Download app. Head Mount Display: Google Cardbord (If you see a double vision, download app to calibrate your phone on the cardboard or scan QR to adjust to your phone).

The recommended videos to start with: 1. NYT VR • Displaced • Fight for Falluja, KIYA (From Sundance collection) 2. 6 x 9 • Solitary confinement 3. Youtube • The Verge: Michelle Obama 4. Discovery VR • A whole new world symphony 5. ABC News VR • Inside North Korea 6. Facebook • Buzzfeed: A 360 degree look of the devastating aftermath of California Valley fire

You task for the next class is to: Think how would you use VR 360. Think about newsworthy story ideas. As many as possible. What do you think are the strength and the weakness of VR 360?