RESEARCH STUDY FOR 360° NEWS/STORYTELLING AND ITS PROSPECTS ON JOURNALISM

ABSTRACT

Journalism is the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through print and electronic media. Earlier, the established media (EM), in terms of TV and radio, contributed greatly to successfully conveying the news but this medium lacked in somewhat manner to let the viewer completely perceive the message. Then, the 360° video, a holistic form of IM, gave birth to a new concept of journalism by enhancement of perceiving the message conveyed both emotionally and psychologically. With the steady growth of the IM, the global acceptance of 360° storytelling, as a part of journalism standard practices, is only a mere matter of time. This paper examines the means of news/storytelling via 360° and its possibility of adaption by journalism.

INTRODUCTION

The 360° video invention, in the year 2015, proved to be a successful branch of immersive media for journalism as they now found a way to deliver their audience the most immersive experience by providing concrete, visual explanations, and examples by engaging them with the VR surroundings and create within them a sense of “being there”, common terminology used to describe the VR by people. But with this great technology comes great responsibility upon journalists. With the growing possibilities of creating a virtual environment for the audience which pose as real, it brings great responsibility upon the shoulders of journalist to not only make the true and real production but must also keep a keen eye on organizations and individuals who produce fake VR and pose as real. Using the IM media also demands journalists to push their research boundaries on IM, re-construct their norms and journalist practices according to the technology demand. With the growing advancement in VR, there is a great prospect of journalism practiced over 360°.

Earlier the main source of storytelling and news reporting was “word of mouth”, which was mainly carried by returning merchants and travelers etc. The news from them was picked up by pedlars and traveling players and spread throughout the town. But the news was highly unreliable and lacked the true essence of the news that it held.

This paper examines the usage of IM in the field of 360° storytelling in journalism. This paper will explain the possibilities of ultimate audience communication that lies within the IM and specifically by 360° news reporting. The audience by viewing the news reporting in 360° video will experience as themselves “being there in the scene” which will enhance their emotional attachment, engagement, and real-time witnessing of the news which is one of the core ethics of journalism. The first topic of this framework will be explaining the concept of journalism before explaining how VR will be affecting it. The next topic will explain how journalism was done before through established media. This will provide sufficient proof for the prospect of acceptance of 360° storytelling in journalism as the initial revolutions have been proved successful. The next topic will brief about the definition of IM and its achievement from its birth to date. Then the birth and achievements of 360° video will be discussed. The next topic will state when and where was the first 360° video transmission used by journalists and what were the feedbacks. It will also support greatly this theoretical framework approach. Next, the ethical problems in journalism will be discussed which are faced using 360° video. And finally, the two research domains for this framework will be discussed. Those are the cultivation and analysis theory by George Gerbner and Bernard’s Theory of the two-step flow model of communication.

CONCEPT OF JOURNALISM

Eric Hodgins of Time Magazine defines it as, “Journalism is the conveying of information from here to there with accuracy, insight, and dispatch and in such a manner that the truth is served and the rightness of things is made slowly, even if not immediately, more evident”. Journalism is the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through print and electronic media.

It can be defined as the day-to-day operation of gathering information and sharing news. It concerns everyone at large. Journalists failing to report the news even by a mere hour will become a state. It should not be considered writing at your leisure. It should be always on the more and the journalist should be attentive to what is happening in the world. Journalism was carried earlier by newspaper printing but later with the inventions of the radio and TV, it was superseded.

The journalistic work at past was a news sheet which circulated in Rome, named as Diurna. Its responsibility was to record daily events like public speeches. Similarly, in China, a circular named BAO was issued and it remained until the Qing dynasty in 1911. However, the first newspaper was in German in 1609 and also the first English newspaper in 1622

EARLIER JOURNALISM THROUGH ESTABLISHED MEDIA (EM)

The history of journalism can be dated back to 1556 when Venice first published a monthly “Notizie Scritte”, a handwritten newsletter. Those handwritten letters could not be categorized as official newspapers because they were not published for the intentions of public readings. Later the journalism took a revolutionary change in the 19^th century when the first official newspaper was released in 1632 and since then the revolution in growing day by day. Later a big leap in journalism history came with the invention of TV and the radio.

Edison’s invention of recording in 1877, followed by Hertz’s invention of wireless transmitting of audio signals began the revolution of the radio. But in those days, the radio was not accepted as a mass medium, similar to the current situation of IM. Marconi identified this area was not popularly pursued by other inventors at the time. In 1920, the first radio broadcast scheduled radio programs, and hence the revolution ended as being accepted as a medium. But the revolution, to date, has failed to achieve its peak due to poor audience attentiveness due to the unavailability of visual information

Later TV, a medium of audio-visual content, immediately took the place of radio in San Francisco, 1927. This big invention breathes a new life in journalism and journalist around the world used this technological weapon to prove their news/storytelling by making the audience witness important events in real-time. This proved to be a strong connection between the audience and the journalist for the discussed news. But still, it lacked an incomplete bond with the audience in terms of emotional and psychological connection which is the important norm for journalism ethics. An English film director, producer, and screenwriter, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock said that “Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house.” It can be concluded from this statement even with the revolutionizing invention of TV, the real sense of “being there” was still a part of the audience were unintentionally missing out on.

While the inventions during the time course evolved the way of news reporting, one lacked visual content for real-time witnessing while the other has immersive and audience positioning drawbacks in the scenario. The rising invention of 360° video provides all solutions to the journalist’s problems they are facing to broadcast true and real content.

CONCEPT OF IM & 360° VIDEO AND THEIR MILESTONES SINCE ITS BIRTH

Immersive media is defined by immersive technologies that attempt to create, or imitate the physical world through digital simulation. It can be defined as the media that stipulate physical senses to the point where we experience psychological immersion, also referred to as telepresence. It has the capability to so involve users that it seems to them as real and produce a sense of “being there”. Virtual reality is the primary source of IM and it can be well defined by Frank Biocca, a professor at Samsung University, as he said “Virtual reality is the first step in a grand adventure into the landscape of the imagination”.

The history of the invention of IM can be dated back to when Sir Charles Wheatstone, in 1858, described stereopsis, a vision through binoculars, that later led to the construction of stereoscope. The device used pair of mirrors at a 45-degree angle to the user’s eye reflecting the picture. In 1956, cinematographer, Morton Helig created the first VR booth that could stimulate all senses of viewers which include 3D video, audio, atmospheric effects like wind and smell. This invention was considered at that event to be the future of cinema. He also created the first head-mounted display (HMD) that provided wide vision with stereo sound.

The breakthrough in the history of IM was when a computer scientist, Ivan Sutherland, created what he called “ultimate display”. This was the first VR device based upon the same concept of HMD and was so immersive that users could not differentiate it from reality. This can be understood by Ivan’s statement as he said, “the ultimate display, of course, would be a room within which a computer can control the existence of matter. A chair placed in such a room would be good enough to sit down, handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining and bullets in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming, such a display could literally be a wonderland in which Alice walked.” His work was considered to be the blueprint for VR.

In 2007, the immersive media, a company captured images of 4 cities initially mapped by the street view and which was introduced by Google. Another breakthrough was in the year 2010 when Occulus Rift was created by an 18-year-old entrepreneur which featured a 90-degree field of vision. This was never seen before. The success of this work can be measured when the boy started its campaign which raised $2.4 million

As for 360° video history, it was first introduced in the 1990s with the help of a digital camera and improved editing software. Later in the same time, omnidirectional cameras were introduced which utilized the same technology as previous to create a truly immersive environment. The first 360° video recording for news was done to show devastation done by Hurricane Katrina’s Wake in 2008. Then it was launched in 2015 by Facebook and YouTube and later news outlets like New York Times, NC news, BBC, and others took advantage. The technology can be defined as the “live capture of real-world event or setting, without any digital environment that is pre-rendered.

The history of various technological advancements, inventions, and adoption by media whether news or entertainment shows the great potential 360° video holds in it.

FIRST 360° NEWS CHANNEL TRANSMISSION, ANALYSIS OF ITS IMPACT ON VIEWERS AND THEIR RESPONSES TO CURRENT POSITION OF 360° VIDEO

The very first 360° news video broadcast was done by New York Times on December 8, 2017. This first video was successfully launched with the partnership of a tech giant, Samsung, in a daily TV series called “360 Daily”. The first transmission from the channel was about the ongoing conflict in Sana, Yemen. Samsung described the video transmission as a “First-of-its-kind visual digital journalism project”.

Over 200 journalists took part in the “Samsung-sponsored” project which was shot across 57 countries. The news series immediately grabbed audience attention with 94 million Facebook views and on YouTube with 2 million views. However, the audience’s analysis done by New York Times reported that real estate videos performed very well while individuals videos were less appreciated. Also, the views the series acquired were lesser in the mobile apps or on distributed platforms but it received great attention in contrast to when the viewers wore a VR headset. The success of the project can be well perceived by the statement of Dean Baquet, executive editor at New York Times, as he said, “From Snowfall to The Upshot to The Displaced, the award-winning VR film that blazed the trail in VR journalism, The Times has been the leader in visual digital storytelling”. The success made the giant news company decided to make 360° video a part of their normal routine news reporting as the executive vice president, Meredith Kopit Levien states, “Last year we delivered the VR experience to the masses, along with dozens of VR films since then, but now it’s time to make 360 videos a part of the daily news report, as common as text or interactives.”

Later, many other news channels, for example, Associated Press, RYOT, Al Jazeera-Contrast VR acquired the technology to broadcast their channel but the IM and 360° video foundation laid by the New York Times clearly indicated the progressive projection of positive growth and made clear the journalism as a beneficiary of IM and 360° video.

TWO RESEARCH DOMAINS FOR 360° VIDEO PROSPECTS ON JOURNALISM

The first theoretical domain to consider is the Embodied Social Presence Theory which can be defined as the embodied virtual representation of oneself which provides a connection between interactions on the social level within the confinement of virtual worlds. This can be further broken down into place illusion (PI) and Plausibility Illusion (PSI). PI refers to the sense of “being there” in a particular scenario while the PSI explains that the event in that elusive virtual environment is occurring although the viewer knows it is not in reality. The fact of these phenomena of virtual occurrence and its acceptance in contrast to reality makes it an even stronger claim of the expressive power of the 360° video storytelling through journalism, which is its core ethics.

The second research domain for this case study is the two-step flow model of communication which is presented by Bernard Berelson along with other associates (but commonly referred to as Bernard’s Theory). The theory states that content produced by mass media first reached to “opinion leaders”, the active media people with the higher intellect, to collect, interpret and share that information, derived from the content, to less active media users. This means that the information received by consumers is not directly from the “media” but after deformation in context by the “opinion leaders”, which in this case can be journalists. This concept imposes great responsibility upon the shoulders of journalists to collect and transfer the information with utmost sincerity and accuracy, the prime ethic of journalism.

EMBODIED SOCIAL PRESENCE THEORY AND JOURNALISM THROUGH VR

According to Marc Mathieu, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung “Virtual reality storytelling isn’t just exciting and immersive, it can forge a lasting and empathetic connection between viewers and subjects.” This can be related to the most challenging aspect of journalism via 360° video as they need to put all the effort into creating the most real-time and engaging content that forces the audience to experience ultimate immersion in the scene.

Since the main essence of 360° video is creating a feeling within viewers to being present in the scene, the audience, in turn, creates an emotional attachment with that place identity. This place identity greatly influences one's association with that place by association of physical activities and creating historic events for the user’s ultimate engagement to that place. This setting of the environment i.e. place identity and activity in a place creates a meaningful perspective for users as they now consider the location more than a mere location but an event-occurring location. Thus, the journalist's decision to finalize the scenario location for the broadcast 360° video is critically important to let the viewer perceive the exact meaning of the storytelling the journalist intended to.

According to an experiment done by H. Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist, people who experienced out-of-body illusion found that their sense of awareness of self was outside their own bodies and they looked at themselves from the other body's perspective. This sense is the core idea of 360° video news reporting in media. When one is immersed in the virtual environment, it experiences three bodies in the interaction, the physical body of the viewer, the virtual body, and the body’s outline in mind which enables interaction with the virtual and real world. This can also be referred to as PSI. The journalists now not only have to set up the perfect environment which poses the desired scenario but also have to present themselves in the scene in a way to enable its audience to act exactly as desired through their emotional as well as psychological manner. Only these practices will make the journalism successful in the field of VR and specifically 360° video news reporting as the journalist will have to train themselves, through thorough practice to control the viewer’s way of perceiving the message as well as keeping them engaged in the content thus creating a deep impact on their mind.

INFLUENCE OF JOURNALISM ETHICS AND THEORY OF TWO-STEP FLOW MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

"The mass do not now take their opinions from dignitaries in Church or State, from ostensible leaders, or books. Their thinking is done for them by men much like themselves, addressing or speaking in their name, on the spur of the moment….", said John Stuart Mill.

The other part of journalism, besides effectively immersing the viewers in the news or storytelling is the extent to which the information is correct and also the forecasting of the impact on the audience’s perception through the delivered message. According to Dave Brat, Dean at Liberty University of School of Business, “The media does play a vital role in our democracy, and if we cannot depend on journalistic ethics, the nation's in trouble.”

It is important to understand the ethics of journalism that in turn describes the responsibilities, the “opinion leaders”, specifically journalists bear on their shoulders. Ethics can be honesty, independence, fairness, diligence, and accountability.

Since the 360° video news reporting greatly influence on viewers’ perspective, the responsibility for journalist arises drastically to deliver the honest and true message of an occurring or under discussion event. Therefore the VR and journalism ethics are part and parcel of each other. The news, if false, not only creates distrust in the profession but also aids in spreading the news among people that never occurred. The only way to deliver the true message is when the journalist’s interest, whether personal or financial does not involve. The people trust journalist as a reliable and true source of information but the mentioned interest will force the journalist to craft the news in a way that is beneficial to achieving his personal goal. The trust can be understood by the statement of Ann Curry, an American Journalist, who said, “Journalism is an act of faith in the future”. A fair journalist will always pose the fact, in front of the audience, in a neutral way, without caring for his or others' interests. A journalist must have the courage to sustain criticism and accountability either if the work is true or false. That way that journalist earns its respect in the eye of the world.

Now the above-mentioned ethics can deeply explain the importance of the two-step flow model theory. The correct, fair, and honest information by journalists, empowered by the latest immersive technology delivers the most powerful message and sustains audience retention at max.

Though little research has been done by journalists and news media on its prospects in the future, there lies a great necessity to revive the ethical definitions and understand the power and the workflow of immersive media and 360° video.

CONCLUSION

Journalism is merely the collection, interpretation, and sharing of information within the right ethical boundaries. But the effectiveness demands increased audience immersion and retention. Earlier, the information was conveyed by word-of-mouth which lacked in the reliability of the information. Then came the established media like TV and radio but they, too, lacked incomplete transfer of information to the audience due to lack in the actual presence in the scenario or, lacking in visual content, as in the case of radio.

But the invention of 360° video proved beneficial to the news media section. Through the time course of these inventions, the world witnessed their gradual acceptance by the media companies or military training organizations and they forecast the successful future through the lens of immersive media (IM).

The 360° video provides the ultimate experience to the viewers as they now can witness the real happening in a certain location through telepresence. This in turn affects their psychological and emotional perceiving of the message resulting in a better understanding of what the journalist had been trying to convey for decades.

But this great technology also demands journalists to practice their ethics in more detail and also conduct deep research in the immersive technology field which is, of course, already on the path to being as globally accepted as the future of media.

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