Browsing by Author "Kukkakorpi, Mariia Päivikki"

This study explores immersive journalism and how virtual reality (VR) stories engage the recipient in real-life events. Immersive journalism can be characterised as a first-person experience of news, emphasising interactive qualities as well as a sense of presence, thus creating a notion of ‘being there’ in the virtual world. The study aims to shed light on the new field of immersive journalism as well as to explore the characteristics and constraints of VR stories in terms of engagement in conflict news. Particular interest is given to the notion of presence and the way in which media form and media content produce engagement as well as the ways in which VR aims to connect the recipient with the news story. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the study combines theories from VR, audio-visual media, presence and media witnessing. The qualitative study employs close reading as the primary method. The New York Times (NYT) has been chosen as the news producer of VR stories since it is the pioneer in the field and provides the largest selection of VR stories. The data is delimited to conflict news, as tragedy can often be described as engaging audiences through distant suffering. The study results in four findings: (1) VR stories employ different narrative strategies to maintain proper distance between the phenomenon and the other and to enhance the experience; (2) the positioning of the recipient spatially in the VR narratives emphasises location, creates a sense of witnessing and focuses on the recipient’s own experience; (3) VR stories aim to construct a relationship between the recipient and the other; and (4) media form and media content aim to evoke various emotions, including empathy. This study finds that NYT VR stories aim to personally engage the recipient with conflict news and to increase emotional engagement. Media content and media form contribute to engagement, for example, in creating proximity to the other and evoking the recipient’s personal interest. Presence enlivens consumption of news and underpins the recipient’s freedom to generate his or her own understanding of events.