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The Use of VR in Journalism: Current Research and Future Opportunities

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Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is more and more used in journalism since 2015 and research is trying to keep the pace. This paper gives an overview of the existing academic research on the topic. First, key concepts are defined, as some terms, such as immersion and presence, are used in various fields with slightly different meaning. Second, the existing research on the use of VR is presented. Research on production mainly analyses challenges of the new technology and ethical issues, while studies on audience are rather empirical, looking at the users’ reactions to the new medium, compared to the classical TV and print. Finally, the state-of-the art is discussed and some research gaps are pointed out, followed by recommendations for further research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following the example of Fraustino, Lee, Lee, and Ahn (2018), this paper will use the term “presence” to refer to both spatial presence and telepresence.

  2. 2.

    “Clouds over Sidra” is a short documentary about Syrian refugees, directed by Chris Milk (founder and CEO of “Vrse”, currently known as “Within”) and produced by the United Nations in partnership with Samsung (Kool, 2016).

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Correspondence to Irina Tribusean .

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Tribusean, I. (2020). The Use of VR in Journalism: Current Research and Future Opportunities. In: Jung, T., tom Dieck, M.C., Rauschnabel, P.A. (eds) Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37869-1_19

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