IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM AS STORYTELLING This book sets out cutting- edge new research and examines future prospects of 360- degree video, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) in journalism, analyzing and discussing virtual world experiments from a range of perspectives. Featuring contributions from a diverse range of scholars, Immersive Journalism as Storytelling highlights both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this form of storytelling. The book discusses how immersive journalism has the potential to reach new audiences, change the way stories are told, and provide more interactivity within the news industry. Aside from generating deeper emotional reactions and global perspectives, the book demonstrates how it can also diversify and upskill the news industry. Further contributions address the challenges, examining how immersive storytelling calls for reassessing issues of journalism ethics and truthfulness, transparency, privacy, manipulation, and surveillance, and questioning what it means to cover reality when a story is told in virtual reality. Chapters are grounded in empirical data such as content analyses and expert interviews, alongside insightful case studies that discuss Euronews, Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria, and The New York Times’ VR application NYTVR. This book is written for journalism teachers, educators, and students, as well as scholars, politicians, lawmakers, and citizens with an interest in emerging technologies for media practice. Turo Uskali is an Associate Professor and Head of the Journalism program at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His research and teaching focus on the interplay of innovations and journalism, and the future of media industries. Astrid Gynnild is a Professor and Head of the Journalism Research Group at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Principal Investigator of the ViSmedia project. Her current research and teaching focus is on visual journalism, new technologies, and innovation foresight. Sarah Jones is Deputy Dean at De Montfort University, UK. Sarah is listed in the top 15 global influencers in VR, is a Google Jump Creator, and has advised the UK Government on immersive technologies. Sarah has published extensively on immersive and emerging media. Esa Sirkkunen works as a senior researcher at Research Centre COMET at Tampere University, Finland. His research focuses on assemblages of digital technologies and journalism, and on broader themes like social theory, privacy, and freedom of speech. IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM AS STORYTELLING Ethics, Production, and Design Edited by Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones, and Esa Sirkkunen First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones and Esa Sirkkunen; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones and Esa Sirkkunen to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial- No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71329- 4 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71330- 0 (pbk) ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 43774- 8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Newgen Publishing UK CONTENTS List of Contributors vii 1 Introduction: what is immersive journalism? 1 Astrid Gynnild, Turo Uskali, Sarah Jones, and Esa Sirkkunen PART I Storytelling 11 2 Exploring the immersive journalism landscape 13 Esa Sirkkunen, Jorge Vázquez- Herrero, Turo Uskali, and Heli Väätäjä 3 Case Euronews: a low- cost approach to immersive storytelling 25 Joakim Vindenes and Astrid Gynnild 4 Global perspectives of immersive journalism 37 Sarah Jones PART II Ethics 47 5 The impact of emotions in immersive journalism 49 Turo Uskali and Pasi Ikonen 6 Project Syria: accuracy in immersive journalism 60 Siri Flatlandsmo and Astrid Gynnild vi Contents 7 Promises and perils in immersive journalism 71 Deborah G. Johnson 8 It’s not just about empathy: going beyond the empathy machine in immersive journalism 82 Sarah Jones PART III Production and design 97 9 Place- based journalism, aesthetics, and branding 99 David O. Dowling 10 Case study: creating a business value in immersive journalism 112 Ilona Ilvonen, Joel Vanhalakka, and Nina Helander 11 The hierarchy of needs for user experiences in virtual reality 123 Chelsea Kelling, Heli Väätäjä, Otto Kauhanen, Jussi Karhu, Markku Turunen, Vesa Lindqvist, and Pasi Ikonen 12 Immersive gaming as journalism 137 Jonne Arjoranta, Raine Koskimaa, and Marko Siitonen 13 Augmented reality as news 147 Pasi Ikonen and Turo Uskali PART IV Education 161 14 Teaching immersive journalism 163 Turo Uskali and Pasi Ikonen 15 Immersive journalism as witnessing 176 Lars Nyre and Joakim Vindenes 16 Forecasting future trajectories for immersive journalism 188 Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Esa Sirkkunen, and Sarah Jones Index 197 CONTRIBUTORS Jonne Arjoranta, PhD, holds a doctoral degree in Digital Culture from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He specializes in philosophical hermeneutics, game studies, and internet cultures and is interested in playful politics, game hermen- eutics, and geek culture. His dissertation “Real- Time Hermeneutics: Meaning- Making in Ludonarrative Digital Games” deals with the structures of meaning in digital games. He has published, for example, in Game Studies, Games and Culture and the International Journal of Role- Playing. He is the Editor in Chief of the Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies. More information about him can be found at https:// jonne.arjoranta.fi. David O. Dowling is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa, and is the author of eight books and numerous articles on publishing industries and the culture of media production. His work in digital media and journalism studies has appeared in such journals as Convergence, Genre, Digital Journalism, Digital Humanities Quarterly, and Journalism & Communication Monographs. The impact of shifts in online culture and digital publishing industries on the multimedia narrative is the focus of Immersive Longform Storytelling: Media, Technology, Audience (Routledge 2019). His teaching includes courses on Digital and Gaming Culture, Critical Media Studies, and Principles of Journalism. Siri Flatlandsmo holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. As a journalist Siri has been particularly interested in exploring the ethical implications of virtual reality on journalism. She has been a research assistant at the ViSmedia research project at the University of Bergen, and has extensive experience in digital change processes in local newsrooms. viii Contributors Nina Helander is Professor of Knowledge Management and works at Tampere University, Finland as a Head of Unit of Information and Knowledge Management and as a leader of the Novi research group. Her research focuses especially on digitalization, value creation, and knowledge management. She has been leading several multidisciplinary research projects, including projects that have focused on digitalization and data- based value creation. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä. Pasi Ikonen, MA, is Project Researcher and has worked on numerous research projects on journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has studied drone jour- nalism and virtual reality, and edited the news service of journalism research, (journalismresearchnews.org). Aside from journalism, Ikonen’s research interests include organizational communication and lobbying. Ilona Ilvonen, DSc (Tech.), is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of Information and Knowledge Management at Tampere University in Finland. Her research interest is focused on knowledge protection and knowledge- based value creation. She has published research articles on the knowledge man- agement and information systems fields, and considers cross- disciplinary research to be essential for understanding complex phenomena. In addition to working at Tampere University, previously Tampere University of Technology, she has worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, Austin, and as a visiting teacher at the University of Jyväskylä. Deborah G. Johnson recently retired as the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia and as researcher in the ViSmedia project at the University of Bergen. Best known for her work on computer ethics and engineering ethics, Johnson’s research examines