ABC News is taking storytelling to the next level with virtual reality
By: Ashley Smalls and Philip B. Richardson
A New York City subway station became ground zero for a creative outpouring of frustration in response to the results of the U.S. presidential election.
Subway Therapy, is an immersive project began Nov. 9 by artist Matthew Levee Chavez, who wanted to create a platform where many New Yorkers — the large majority of whom voted for Hillary Clinton — had a way to engage one another in a catharsis that might prove productive moving toward the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on January 20. “It gave people an outlet to express their hopes and fears in a safe space,’ Chavez said in a recent Quartz interview.
One of the most noteworthy aspects of the project is the reportage done by ABC, who took to Union Square, the site of the sticky notes protest. The reporter/videographer takes the viewer down the steep stairs and onto the platform, where a multitude of technicolor paper squares express messages of hope and political will from fellow New Yorkers weary of a Trump-era America.
“Vote midterm elections in two years, don’t let hate win again.” read one message on a post-it note that wafts in a breeze that seems to come from deep within the tunnel. The experience feels immersive and real, in a way that only VR can provide.
In a recent The Verge article by Adi Robertson titled, Can Virtual Reality Help Us Talk Politics Online, the author ponders whether storytelling through VR allows for deeper empathy by removing the emotional distance that one may feel when you only read an article about a disparate lived experience or political understanding. Roberson ponders whether “virtual reality, theoretically, can make people on opposite sides of the globe feel like they’re talking face-to-face.”
Sadly, we don’t know if that were the case online and on social media, where there seemed to be a mixed bag of reactions, usually falling along the lines of partisan trolling. Trump supporters listed in top comments usually rail against the political art as the opus of “cry babies” and sore losers denouncing the electoral process, while liberal supporters of the art (and presuming by extension, the Democratic Presidential candidate) lament their fears and uncertainty of the next fours year. They all just talk past one another.
VR’s strength is its ability to take viewers beyond their living rooms, into the far off and more urgent news events, like war, famine and natural disaster. VR is most potent as a tool for journalism when it is visceral, so real you can feel it.
Prior to its coverage of the Subway Wall, ABC News also used VR technology to cover election night. Using VR, ABC News transported users to Times Square on election night so that they could experience bringing the presidential race to a close. Getting a first-hand look at people in Times Square as well as the scene inside the Javitz Center where Hillary Clinton’s campaign was stationed was a great way to show the emotional toll this election took on U.S. citizens. It also provided for a whole new interactive experience when Donald Trump was announced the winner in a state that Hillary Clinton won and in the room of her campaigners.
It goes back to the point about feeling in a way that only Virtual Reality will allow you to feel. While these emotions ran high on all different mediums and platforms on election night, feeling it through virtual reality is not just more interactive but hopefully emotional enough that it will allow more empathy even for people with view who differ.
The important thing to note about ABC News is that they covered election night in this way using virtual reality and then followed it up with Subway Therapy’s sticky note confession wall. That transition from a story about anticipation that lead to disarray from a state that voted for another candidate other than the actual winner to a story about that same place coming together to exchange words of love and encouragement is how ABC News is really changing storytelling with virtual reality. We’re no longer being limited to a handful of quotes in an article and scrolling through the comments about how other people feel. Instead, VR breaks through journalism’s “fourth wall,” bridging the gap between knowledge and lived experience. In these stories, ABC News didn’t just take us to the source of disarray but to the aftermath. In the era where “fake news” is a hot topic, ABC News is producing content that is not just pulling on the emotional heart strings, but is live and hard to argue with.
After the success of Subway Therapy’s sticky note confession wall, other confessional walls started to pop up in other places around New York. Although it doesn’t appear to have any affiliation with Subway Therapy, a sticky note wall popped up at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the notes on the wall were later removed by the MTA. But this serves as proof that not only does this story resonate with people but it inspires them to want to go out and not only be a part of their work but create something similar for their own community. Using Virtual Reality to continue highlighting these stories is especially crucial during this time. Stories of togetherness and using Virtual Reality to make us feel a part of it will only produce more stories of unity.
