Immersive Journalism and Telepresence

Abstract

Although news in virtual reality (VR) is currently on the rise, relatively little empirical evidence on its effects has been reported. This study tests if telepresence in VR news consumption can affect news credibility. In a posttest-only experiment (N = 80), 40 subjects watched VR news: 20 with a headset (Google Cardboard) and 20 in 360 degrees without a headset. A group of 20 subjects watched 2D video news. Twenty subjects only answered a questionnaire without VR exposure. The comparison of four groups revealed that VR news groups showed significantly higher telepresence than did the group with no exposure. Both the VR with a headset and 360-degree groups also marked higher in news credibility than did the group with no exposure. There were only a few significant differences between the 360-degree group and the 2D video group in telepresence and credibility. In an interaction effect test, VR news groups with high telepresence evaluated news credibility better than the group with no exposure. There were no differences among the headset, 360-degree, and 2D news groups with high telepresence in credibility. Study implications, limitations, and suggestions are discussed.

Keywords:

• virtual reality
• news
• immersive journalism
• telepresence
• news credibility

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The experiment administrators first planned to show 2 minutes but due to the poor WiFi connection in the lab, the amount of time was adjusted to 1 minute and 30 seconds. Longer exposure at faster WiFi speed is needed in future research.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Faculty Research Development Fund of the Department of Communication at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Notes on contributors

Seok Kang

Seok Kang (author to whom correspondence should be addressed), Department of Communication, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Erin O’Brien

Erin O'Brien School of Business and Leadership, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Arturo Villarreal

Arturo Villarreal Department of Communication, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Wansoo Lee

Wansoo Lee Division of Media and Communication, Dongseo University, Busan, South Korea. E-mail: [email protected]

Chad Mahood

Chad Mahood Department of Communication, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA. E-mail: [email protected]