Virtual Reality: Journalism’s Missed Opportunity
A story breaks. Newsrooms across the country become a flurry of activity. Camera crews and correspondents are dispatched to the scene, jostling to be as lawfully close to the action as possible. The media hurriedly establish the facts and begin drafting articles, all the while inundating the public with live updates. The deluge of trash and fake news on social media is sifted for useful nuggets of information, photographs and videos. Phone calls, emails and tweets fly in the pursuit of eye witness accounts and interviewees.
Whilst digitisation has altered the mode of news consumption, producing mediums such as Instagram Live, live tweeting and Snapchat stories, the purport of journalism has remained the same: to quickly and efficiently engage one’s audience by bringing them as close to the action with the technology available.
Why, then, is virtual reality, the ultimate tool for interactivity, so underutilised in an industry it seems designed for? Furthermore, how can VR be embedded into the structure of news organisations and implemented into standard journalistic practice?
Zillah Watson’s ground-breaking report, ‘VR for News: The New Reality’, commissioned by Reuters Institute, produced several key findings in this burgeoning area of research. Strikingly, the BBC commissioning editor for virtual reality found that producers of VR news have a poor understanding of their audience, concluding that a successful monetisation model is required for it be a sustainable form of content creation going forward.
The availability of 360-degree video to capture and view content on modern smartphones is a step in the right direction. Whilst it is not VR in the strictest sense, the opportunities for engaging, innovative and immersive journalistic content are immense.
For example, The Blick Group, a multinational integrated media company, adapted its strategic approach, electing to predominantly present stories through ‘VR-Telling’. An excellent example of ‘VR-Telling’ can be found here in a 360-degree video report on the fight against ISIS in Iraq. The report immediately orientates the viewer into the centre of the ongoing conflict in a way that is impossible through contemporary journalism practice.
This form of digital storytelling enables a level of immediacy and immersion that cannot be achieved through a foreign correspondent’s report or undercover investigation. Whilst this is not to suggest that traditional journalism has had its day, innovative reports such as these hint at what the future could hold if news organisations were to embrace the potential of VR.
Projects such as Notes on Blindness demonstrate the potential of VR for bringing news to life. Notes on Blindness is a multi-platform project based on John Hull, a writer and theologian, whose struggle against deteriorating sight is documented in a series of audio cassettes.
The VR strand of the project explores the sensory and psychological experience of going blind, overlaying Hull’s audio recordings with real time 3D animation to experience John Hull’s world without sight.
The documentary achieved widespread national acclaim. The Guardian described Notes on Blindness as ‘an inspiring docudrama’, while The Telegraph pronounced the feature as ‘one of the most eye-opening documentaries you’ll see all year’.
Why are these juggernauts of the journalism industry, eager as they are to laud the ingenuity and insight of ground-breaking VR projects such as Notes on Blindness, unwilling to attempt the medium for themselves?
The answer lies in motivational ambidexterity.
In the rapidly evolving digital era we found ourselves, businesses and organisations across all industries are continually being challenged to be efficient in the management of today’s business whilst adapting for tomorrow’s demand.
Finding this balance between innovation and replication is an issue the journalism industry has been struggling with for some time. Consideration should be given to the immense effect digitisation has had on the industry, together with the difficulty in adapting to a wholly altered advertising landscape on which revenue streams were dependent and the financial crash of 2008. However, one can only empathise so far before the industry’s failure to look forwards begins to frustrate.
For an industry that necessitates the need to be fresh and current, the lack of investment made into future-proofing the industry through investment into VR strategy is startling, particularly when you look at the strides made in other industries.
An excellent example is the BBC’s screening of the 2018 World Cup in virtual reality. The trial, available to watch on your smartphone, tablet or VR headset through the BBC Sport VR 2018 FIFA World Cup app, enabled the user to watch any World Cup match live from inside their own hospitality box with a real-time match information display and audio commentary.
Whilst the trial was far from perfect, with users complaining of resolution issues and difficulty in viewing action on the far side of the pitch, the pilot scheme was an undoubted success and has since been lauded as the future of sports entertainment. The trial was not intended to revolutionise the media sport industry overnight, but to pave the way for Qatar 2022 and USA 2026 when the technological standard of VR headsets has improved, and the cost of purchase reduced for an increased consumer market.
Since the trial, the two major players in the UK sports entertainment industry have entered the virtual reality scene. BT Sport has introduced VR 360 on the BT Sport App, whilst Sky have launched the Sky VR app.
One leading organisation, a sole trailblazer, is all it would take for the journalism industry to set a similar precedent. Whilst the industry is content to sit back and praise the pioneering efforts of Peter Middleton and James Spinney in bringing John Hull’s plight into the world of virtual reality, no serious, concerted attempt has been made to practice the medium for journalistic purposes.
Of course, there remain barriers to entry for a full-scale adoption of VR content. Headset prices remain high, with first-generation models remaining in the hundreds of pounds despite having fallen in price since their commercial debut. As a result, the consumer market for ‘full VR’, that is, the market beyond 360-video that requires a headset, remains relatively small.
Furthermore, despite general acknowledgement amongst experts that VR will become commonplace, there is uncertainty whether headsets will be commonplace in households two, five or ten years hence.
There are also the legal and moral implications to consider, particularly with the use of live VR. Video games that possess VR functionality have a designated age rating affirmed by the Video Standards Council, who consider the appropriateness and suitability of content for players under a certain age. Similarly, with the aforementioned BBC VR app, whilst the streamed content is live, there is no age restriction for use, as there is only so much that can happen on or around the field of play from the confines of a hospitality box.
The same cannot be said in the reporting of live breaking news. Since the dawn of the camera over a century ago, harrowing images have been captured via photograph and video at countless atrocities. Though these images can be distressing, they are justified for they enable an independent, democratic press to accurately report issues deemed in the public interest and are crucial for a journalist’s documentation of events.
However, would the moral boundary be blurred if virtual reality were employed to document some of the more macabre and chilling images of the past century? Should the image of 9-year-old Kim Phuc, fleeing from a napalm attack on Viet Cong hiding places during the Vietnam War, been produced in virtual reality, would an ethical line be crossed?
If, or rather when, VR becomes a mainstream tool for journalists, laws and regulations akin to those now obeyed by drone operators will be required for safe legal use.
With the financial entry point lowering and the consumer market increasing, the opportune moment has arrived for the journalism industry to experiment with virtual reality. The Guardian’s first virtual reality experience, 6x9, represents a step in the right direction. The Guardian’s creation of a mobile app enables the user to experience life inside a US solitary confinement cell on your phone. A 360-video is also available to avoid alienating those without a smartphone. Innovative, experimental solutions such as these can go a long way in inspiring other organisations to divert their limited resources into forging a sustainable future for the journalism industry.
Despite its present barriers to entry, the reluctance of press organisations to fully embrace the potential of virtual reality represents more than a reluctance to innovate. Allocating resources, deciding whether to innovate or replicate the established formula, is a challenge faced industry-wide. Whilst it is possible for organisations to become too future-focused, it is imperative the journalism industry begins allocating resources for the future.
However, executives and shareholders amongst the major players are not rewarded for future-proofing the industry. They are rewarded for present day results, producing material that sells copies and drives traffic, not for diverting resources to a developing platform with an underwhelming consumer market.
It is integral to the survival of public interest journalism that we harness the technology available, empowering journalists with the tools to utilise virtual reality.
