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Experiences and Preferences of Immersive Journalism: Comparison of Current and
Future Media Forms
Chelsea Kelling*, Heli Väätäjä°, Otto Kauhanen*, Ville Mäkelä*, Pasi Ikonen+, Kimmo Ronkainen*, Tuuli
Keskinen*, Esa Sirkkunen*, Turo Uskali+, Markku Turunen*
*Tampere University, Finland; firstname.lastname@tuni.fi
°Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland; firstname.lastname@lapinamk.fi
+ University of Jyväskylä, Finland; firstname.lastname@jyu.fi
ABSTRACT
the increasingly mainstream use of Virtual Reality (VR), journalists are embracing yet another news delivery form;
-
--degree video viewed from a VR headset. Through this set-
up, we explored the elements of user experience, the i
hich form viewers prefer
to experience the presented media.
KEYWORDS
-
preference, context of use
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
1 INTRODUCTION
As technology pushes humanity further into the future, many areas of day-to-day life are rapidly changing.
Whether for better or for worse, new tech is providing easier and more interesting ways to perform tasks. One
example of these tech-driven behavioural shifts is the way in which we consume news. From the written word to
radio broadcast to televised breaking news, the progression of journalism has seen many different forms and
media types.
VR is slowly seeping into many industries, and although its use is growing, the creation process and execution of
VR experiences are still in infancy and often experimental at best. However, major news outlets are indeed
investing in VR and IJ, suggesting that VR is not going anywhere this time around. Therefore, the need to continue
the investigation of how to create meaningful and enjoyable VR experiences is paramount. The equation for a top-
notch experience is not so simple, though. Contributing factors range from pragmatic issues such as video quality
and hardware abilities to more hedonic qualities like the effectiveness of storytelling, emotional impact, and
content preference. Just as a journalist carefully chooses each word as they craft an article, such care must also
be taken when creating VR experiences.
Another factor that influences VR consumption is the context in which is it used. With the aid of the internet and
our trusty mobile phones, news is currently obtained in a variety of ways. Users happen upon news stories in their
social media feeds, such as on Twitter or Facebook, or can find a summary of international news by simply
and one form is often accompanied by another, such as a video acting as a summary or supplementary material
to a digital article. As VR becomes more common as a form of journalistic content, there is now the question of
where virtual reality fits into the news consumption dynamic. Should VR experiences be used in conjunction with
articles o
In this study, we investigate the experiential factors -degree video. The video was modelled after an
article about the role of telomeres in the aging process that was taken from an online Finnish news website. The
video gives a summary of the information in the article then guides the user through a short meditation exercise,
which the article lists as one of the ways to improve telomere health. In the experiment, each participant
experiences the content in two -degree video viewed on a smartphone,
or -video viewed with a VR headset. All participants also read the original article in digital print form. Through
this set-up, we aim to explore the elements of user experience, the impact of storytelling and content, and the
differences in preference for each media form. Our results highlight how VR might best be used in the journalistic
context, where it fits into the dynamics of digital news consumption, and concrete ways to improve the overall
experience of viewing VR content.
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
2 BACKGROUND
Journalists have long sought to transport their audience from the kitchen table newspaper to the front row of the
story. With the adoption of immersive journalism and virtual reality, this is quite rapidly becoming possible
(Sirkkunen . Virtual environments have the potential to put the user in the middle of the action and
engage in a way that previous forms of media cannot. This does not mean that journalists need to create a virtual
battlefront for the audience to experience war, but it rather opens opportunities for viewers to connect with
content in a way Immersive
content links the consumer to the story, and although storytelling has always been the foundation of journalism,
of journalism be transformed to fit the narrative needs of VR before the story shifts from information to
and are beginning to highlight
Further, the immersive qualities of VR alone do not automatically guarantee a memorable or positive experience
e user experience (UX) greatly depends on a variety of factors that can easily
result in a bad experience if careful attention is not given. Firstly, immersion and presence of course play a large
ent. Immersion, which is generated through the
hardware and technology, and presence, the way that you perceive your experience resulting from the
technology, are terms that are thrown around quite liberally in the discussion surrounding VR .
Regardless of the varying definitions that exist throughout the field, for the purpose of our research, we stick with
experience.
Pressing d
Experience (CUE) can aid content creators in crafting their virtual experiences by understanding the elements
related to a positive experience (Wienrich et al.,
perception of instrumental qualities (usability, ease of use, learnability, etc.), the perception of non-instrumental
qualities (aesthetic pleasure, visual appearance, system feedback, etc.), and
parallels can be made from instrumental qualities to immersion, and non-instrumental
qualities to perception. Standing on its own, however, are the emotions that arise from the experience. Emotions
arise due to a personal reaction to a certain stimulus; this could be because of the topic or content, or because of
their origins is, however, out of the scope of this research. The important point here is that all of these elements
feed into one another and reactions arise from this interdependency—it is not always clear if the emotions affect
the experience or the experience affects the emotion. The challenge for journalists is to break
down these elements in an attempt to understand how their immersive content might affect their viewers and
how the elements within the experience can work together to provide a truly memorable and effective piece of
journalism.
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
4
Stepping aside from virtual content, another new media form growing in popularity in the journalism industry is
podcasts. Humans have become increasingly tied to our mobile devices, and digital journalism has found its place
in our day-to-day rush. However, this sets up a barrier for immersive content; VR headsets are not reasonably
portable at this time and require a specific viewing context .). This does leave opportunity for
other types of immersive experiences that are highly portable, though, such as podcasts. As consumers shift
towards more and more on-demand services, podcasts fit conveniently into this new wave of content readily
available at all times . Podcasts provide immersive experiences through their deep narratives and
LindgrenAlthough
podcasts lack the visual elements that VR can boast of, this in a way adds to their engagement; all one simply has
podcast-like audio experience in our research to better understand how podcasts fit into the journalistic scene
and how their experiences compare to that of current and novel forms of media.
360° Application Design
-
degree application. An article was taken from a local newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, that details the work of
colleagues found that lifestyle choices such as eating healthily, exercising, and meditating aid in preserving
telomeres and thus reduce or slow the aging process. To adapt the article into a virtual experience, the most
relevant information was extracted and written as a voice over script. The experience consisted of two parts. At
the beginning of the experience, the user is standing in a cyber-like room with four screens around them. As the
narration introduces telomeres and how to support their health, animated illustrations are shown on the screens
as supplementary information . Once this section is over, the scene fades out and the user is
transported to a winter landscape in a forest near a lake . The scene was captured at a local lake
-degree camera and was then edited to include special effects of foggy air and fluffy snow falling, as
sion and
are then free to enjoy the quiet landscape.
the winter
landscape of the meditation exercise with snow as a special effect (right).
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
The purpose of the experience was to not only summarize and present the information from the original article
but to also bring a new dimension to the material by actually immersing the user into a piece of the story; because
the article mentions meditation as one of the ways to increase telomere health, users get a taste of how to
immediately put what they have learned into practice. This transforms the article from purely informational into
an actual physical experience. The application was built on the Unity and Steam VR platforms, which can be run
on most commercial VR headsets. In addition to the VR version, a mobile version was also developed, wherein
users can rotate the mobile device to look around the scenes. Lastly, a podcast version was created that included
audio only.
3 METHODS
Study Design
The study was arranged in a mixed subjects design to include three groups. Each group viewed two medias, and
-video with a VR headset
Additionally, each participant read the supplementary article after t). Therefore,
all.
Group A
Group B
Group C
First Media
-Video – VR
-Video – VR
Podcast
Second Media
Podcast
-Video – Mobile
-Video – Mobile
Third Media
Article
Article
Article
The questionnaires used aimed to measure the emotional states of participants before and after the experiences,
the effectiveness of the storytelling elements and story content, the general UX of the experience, level of
presence experienced for each media, and finally media preference. Additionally, a background questionnaire
-degree videos, and podcasts.
Finally, a semi-structured interview was conducted at the end of the procedure which measured the general
thoughts and feelings that were raised from the experiences, the reasoning behind media-type preference, and
thoughts about receiving journalistic cont details the topics used in the questionnaires
and interview and the resources from where the questions were adapted.
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
. Questionnaire and interview elements and their sources.
SOURCE
ANSWER TYPE
BACKGROUND
Demographics
----
----
Journalistic consumption behaviors
)
Multiple Choice
Attitudes towards technology
Jumisko-
Multiple Choice
Jumisko-
Multiple Choice
PRE-TEST
Emotional state (“at the moment I am
)
Fill in the blank
POST-TEST (AFTER EACH MEDIA)
Emotional state (“at the moment I am
)
Fill in the blank
Storytelling – involvement
—
Storytelling – understandability
"
Storytelling – attention
"
Storytelling – interest
"
UX – fun
Mahlke
—
UX - visual/audio/written quality
Mahlke
"
UX - enjoyment
)
"
UX – repeat experience
Mahlke
"
Content – informative
—
Content – interesting
"
Content – accurate/credible
"
Context of use - reading/listening/viewing
environments
Jumisko-nio
—totally
Simulator sickness
Kennedy et al.
—
Presence
Schubert et al. ()
-
WRAP-UP (AT THE END)
Media preference
)
Multiple Choice
Enjoyment of meditation scene
Mahlke
—
Usefulness of supplementary article
—very
INTERVIEW
Overall thoughts, feelings, and ideas
Jumisko-
Semi-Structured
Overall enjoyment
Mahlke
Semi-Structured
Media preference
Pesonen )
Semi-Structured
Thoughts on supplementary article
Pesonen )
Semi-Structured
Desire to know more about the topic
Pesonen )
Semi-Structured
Procedure
The study was conducted in a small room dedicated to VR research located in a university building. The room was
quiet and free from outside noises or distractions. A spinning office chair was placed in the middle of the room
where the participant experienced the first two media forms . The questionnaires were filled
electronically from a laptop placed on a small table. The participant also sat at the table to read the supplementary
article from the laptop. The experiment was conducted in Finnish, then later all materials were translated to
English for evaluation. The VR experiences were shown with an HTC Vive heads-degree video for the
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
-the-ear headphones were used for both the mobile phone
version and the podcast.
group. First, the participants signed the consent form and filled the background questionnaire, followed by the
pre-test questionnaire, which measured their current emotional state. The participant then experienced their first
media and answered the post-
post-test questionnaire. Finally, all participants read the original article that the experience was based on,
answered the wrap-up questionnaire, and talked about their experiences during the interview. The entire testing
-
Participan -binary. Ages ranged
were all of Finnish nationality, and were of various study and work backgrounds,
with the majority in Information and Commu Participants had varying attitudes toward
, “I try to avoid appliances of the
eleven, “Technical appliances are tools which I buy and use after conside I use technical
appliances after the oI tend to use the state-of-the-art technical
-.
had at least some previous experience with VR.
example of the testing set up (middle), and a snapshot of the landscape present in the meditation exercise
(right).
4 RESULTS
Emotions were recorded at the start of the experiment and
after each media experience with the question, “At the moment, I am feeling ___, ___, and ___
discrete emotions from which the blanks could be filled. The most frequent emotions across all experiences were
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
This suggests that the media type did not influence how the participants were feeling. Instead, it appears that
since the topic of the content was quite neutral, in the sense that it was not particularly positively or negatively
charged, and this could be what contributed to the uniform reactions.
. Initial emotional states and emotional reactions to the four media types.
Amused
Angry
Anxious
Calm
Confused
Enamored
Happy
Interested
Joyful
Proud
Surprised
Initial
4
25
25
Podcast
18
4
13
4
Mobile
4
14
4
11
VR
4
18
4
17
Article
4
26
21
4
In terms of experiential elements, the digital article experience outperformed the other forms of media in
reliability, interest, attention, understanding, recommendation, and enjoyment. However, the podcast experience
also received high scores, and was especially viewed as more informative and slightly more pleasant than the
other experiences. -degree mobile phone experience was rated poorly in the majority of the items,
especially so in attention, interest in continuing a similar story, enjoyment, pleasantness, and recommending the
experience. The VR experience was rated similarly to the mobile experience, except with noticeably better scores
in continuation and recommendation.
4
The experience was pleasant
I enjoyed the experience
I enjoyed the meditation exercise
I would recommend the experience to my friends or family
I would like to continue with a similar story
I felt involved in the story
I understood the information
I dedicated my full attention to the storytelling
I liked the story content
I would like to know more about this topic
I think the content of the story was informative
I think the content of the story was interesting
I trust that the content of the story is accurate and reliable
Article VR Mobile Audio
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
The items were taken di(Schubert One of the
advantages of the IPQ is the ability to create a Igroup.org,
). To create the profile, the means of each dimension (Spatial Presence SP, Involvement INV, and Experienced
Realism REAL) are calculated and plotted on a radar chart with three axes. The profile reveals a higher reported
presence in the VR and podcast experiences, while the mobile phone experience had the lowest reported
presence. Interestingly, the podcast and VR groups experienced almost identical scores for spatial presence, or
the sense of being physically present in the virtual environment. This suggests that although VR engrosses users
by transporting them into a completely immersive space, the visual elements may not add much when it comes
to feeling present, at least in the case of our application.
Figure 4. Comparison of the presence profiles for each media type.
Finally, to measure preference, in the wrap-up questionnaire participants were asked, “Which media form did you
best to worst. The ranking resulted Podcastand 4. Mobile Phone. This supports the
findings from the experiential elements, raising questions as to the why. It would be expected that the VR
st nd choice, due to the novelty of VR in general and the added sensory information
that the immersion allows for; however, this seems to not be the case.
Although the questionnaire results bring many new questions to the surface, the interview data does lend to
possible answers. -degree video in VR mentioned that the visual
content did not meet their expectations, stating that they would have liked to see something that pushed the
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
boundaries of a normal VR experienceMaybe [I would prefer] a topic that would've been more experiential.
fit for the content since it was largely informational and that they could concentrate better with the audio-only
Although the
-degree experiences accurately conveyed the same information found in the
digital article, that was not what they were hoping for in an immersive experience. There were many praises,
however, for the meditation section of the experience; almost all participants found the environment to be
calming and relaxing. Several participants even remarked that in the VR experience they could feel the coldness
of the winter scene, stating, “…when you had this snowy scenery the whole room felt colder than it would've
otherwise feltat it was the best format for this topic so that
It depends what you want out of it. I like to listen. It's relaxing
and pleasant and you retain some information, but If you really need to stick the information, then the text
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The future of immersive journalism will depend on the ability of content creators to not only understand their
users, but also the medium in which their content is delivered. As our findings suggest, it is not enough to simply
convert a written article into an immersive experience, it must be done so in a way that compliments the vast
capabilities of virtual technology. Further, journalistic content should not be made into virtual content just for the
sake of doing so; it should be carefully considered whether the virtual elements add actual value for consumers.
As the comments show, VR brings such high expectations that a simple informational experience is not enough to
fully engage users. Additionally, the preliminary results of a high presence score and second place in preference
for the audio experience, suggest that podcasts or audio experiences are another avenue that journalists should
not ignore or neglect. In creating new forms of media, the journalistic content should be analyzed in terms of fit
for the type of media to which it should be adapted.
The novelty of VR is not enough on its own to make a great experience; the content itself must be appropriate for
the virtual context, otherwise, other adaptations or medias should instead be explored. In both the measured
emotional states and interview comments, it is obvious that immersive content is better suited for emotionally
driven content. Whether this is done through storytelling elements or other means, users seem to expect some
sort of emotional engagement in the immersive experience. Of course journalistic content varies greatly across
topics, and this emotional element will not always be present, especially in cases such as this where the content
was mostly informational. In our exploration of the preferences across users, our topic seems best fit as it was
originally in article form, or as a podcast/listening experience. Participants where interested in the details of the
article and digesting the information at their own speed. However, this is not to say that the VR experience was
perceived poorly. The snowy environment of the meditation exercise was well received by nearly all of the
participants, providing an out-of-the-box experience that complimented the information given in the first half of
the experience. Therefore, providing supplementary immersive experiences should be considered by content
creators as an additional avenue to engage readers and news consumers. This relationship begs for further
research to better understand the possibilities of the future of media.
Experiences and Preferences of Immersive
Forms
This study aimed to examine the experiential elements of immersive journalism and explore the users’ preferences
of both traditional and novel forms of media. Our findings suggest that preference of media type is highly context
and content dependent. With the rapid development of new technologies comes the urgent need to more deeply
understand the relationship between these new media forms and their consumers. Future research should expand
upon this relationship, with an emphasis on the emotional engagement that can be offered through immersive
content. Emotional journalistic content varies greatly as well, and although our results indicate that VR is well
suited for emotionally driven content, there is still the question of how far to take this engagement. Just as there
limits to how emotionally vacant an experience should be, there is also a limit for how emotionally fuelled content
should be; immersive content can truly captivate viewers, and there should be great caution present in pushing
these boundaries. and listening experiences should not be
neglected and deserve wider insight as well, especially as technology moves towards greater mobility and
increased ease of use.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was conducted as part of the VIRJOX project and was supported by the Finnish Funding Agency for
Innovation (Tekes).
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