Product idea: News service about immersive journalism
Digital media has changed the way users consume and share content, as well as the way we gather and distribute the news.
As more platforms emerge, it is challenging for news organizations to keep up and dedicate resources to experimental forms of storytelling. This becomes more difficult with smaller, local news organizations may be going through reorganizations or cuts, or in countries where editorial staffs are adjusting to increasing their digital skills.
Hypothesis: Augmented and virtual reality, as well as other immersive storytelling platforms, are still at their infancy and there is no centralized resource to highlight and share best practices, training resources, tools, events and job opportunities between journalists and technologists working on solutions. As new headsets, apps and other hardware and software become less expensive and more available to our audience, we have to be prepared to understand their needs and be able to reach them in a meaningful way.
The objective: To create a community with resources where journalists can converge to promote the development of immersive storytelling and lower the barrier of entry to smaller or local media organizations that don’t have much resources to dedicate to experimentation. This means not only broadening the reach of training on how to create immersive content, but also opening up discussion around culture and journalistic ethics.
The product: Initially, this news service could begin as a weekly newsletter and a social media page to distribute the content and build a user database to gauge industry interest and involvement.
The biweekly newsletter would highlight:
- Main post around a case study, trend or interview with journalists or product managers in the area
- Curated stories around VR/AR journalistic products
- Highlight of one tool for content creation or distribution
- Job/training opportunities
- Promotion of upcoming event(s)
To promote the product, it’s necessary to connect with professional organizations such as ONA, NAHJ, NABJ, AAJA, JAWS and Poynter Institute, among others, as well as academic organizations and leaders.
If signups to the newsletter reach 5,000 within 6 months, the product can further develop as a news site with a network of contributors, continued education MOOCs and webinars and a wiki where the community can document projects, best practices, failures and success stories.
Additional reading on the subject:
- Yes, Virtual Reality and 360 Video Are Relevant. Here’s Why.
- Virtual reality in Journalism: new report provides an overview of a growing platform for storytelling
- Virtual Reality, Empathy and the Next Journalism
- Virtual reality and 360 video still not profitable in Latin American journalism, but are attracting new audiences
*note: This product pitch is for CUNY’s Graduate Journalism School seminar “Product Thinking for News”.
