Role of Immersive Media in Journalism

While mobile video journalism has just picked up in the last 5 years, Immersive technologies are taking the different aspects of Journalism media capture, reporting, and distribution by storm (literally, see the video below).

It's been there since ages

Immersive Tech or Augmented Reality specifically, is not new to News Channels reporting weather and forecast. Remember the weather report where the reporter will stand in front of a screen showing the state of the weather. In reality, the reporter will be in front of a green screen, which in post-production (done live) will be replaced by a weather report graphics. But they were still graphics — icons and animations — not realistic.

The biggest advantage of Immersive Technology is the ability to show things as close as real, so that viewers do not have to visualize just based on what reporter shows or tells in form of representation of the event

Mixed Reality based weather forecast

That is Immersive Tech is making a mark. With the advent of 3d production and mixing technologies and ability to project things around the subject with respect to the space they are in, is what has made news reporting a much more realistic and immersive experience.

Earlier, a reporter giving data on the magnitude of a storm will be in form of numbers i.e. the speed of the wind, no. of deaths, the height of water level in different parts etc. The viewer had to take all this data and visualize in their head of the devastating nature of the storm. Forget visualization if the viewer is not part of the storm they won’t care about those figures, but the reporter!

Capturing the news and events

Consumer 360 cameras today are good enough to capture and stream 360 videos. So when a reporter is in the midst the event, they take out this camera and start a record or live stream. This allows the viewer to get a true sense of what’s happening at the site, making news trustworthy. Ability to look around the spot of a reporter in 360 is what gives viewer confidence in the authenticity.

Apart from 360 camera which just captures still images or video in 360, there is a technique of capturing true depth 3d of the scene. It’s called photogrammetry. In this technique subject or object is captured from different angles and all the images are then processed to extract 3d depth information of different points to construct a 3d mesh.

Below is an example of the output. The below capture is done using some drone photography.

Photogrammetry is not live today, but in the coming years capturing volumetric data will be as simple and good as capturing photos and videos today.

News reporting — TV and Mobile devices

Till now we had news reporters addressing live participants and audience either on TV or physically sitting in the show. But now with the immersive tech, they may be located in a different geography and is projected in the screen as sitting right in front of the host or an event happening before them.

Linear to nonlinear storytelling

Till now the news was presented in a linear fashion in the same sequence that the reporter will use. However, with Immersive Technology (particularly Virtual and Mixed reality) it’s up to the viewer on how to consume the news, in what format and sequence. They may jump to other news articles or twitter feed to cross-check the authenticity or get deeper in the content.

Time as Chronos and Kyros

There are two Kinds of Time as per Greek mythology. There are two gods associated with the two different kinds of time, which roughly correspond to the Greek words chronos and kairos. Chronos corresponds to regular cycles, and kairos corresponds to progressive flows.

Similarly news can be presented either as Chronos, which is capturing first, processing and presentation or as Kyros which is presenting as it is being captured. Mixed reality allows processing or on the go visualization on top of live capture making Chronos and Kyros at the same time!

However, the current state of Immersive technology is limited by the complexity and time of the content creation process. This makes it almost impossible to report the news live in a much more granular way. Hence, almost all the news articles delivered via Immersive tech are captures, processed for better visualization and then served.

Storytelling vs Storyliving

Journalism since ages has always been presented with the perspective of the reporter which makes it much more like a storytelling experience. With content being served on smartphones via Immersive medium.

NYTimes AR app Showing real cave dimensions of Thai cave rescue mission

So the focus of media consumption has shifted from the presenter to viewer and in the sequence and place of their choice making the experience much more realistic and contextual.

In the times to come Immersive Tech will allow us to be present at the site of reporting and get a more deep connection with what's being reported. This allows for a deeper empathy with the situation and the people concerned.

On a negative side it also means that simulated scenes may be used to influence the decision making of layman. Which calls for a better content relay mechanisms.