The Effects of Virtual Reality News on Learning about Climate Change

ABSTRACT

Promoting public knowledge about climate is important for garnering support for climate-change policy, and researchers have begun to study the effectiveness of new technologies as learning tools. News organizations are increasingly producing immersive journalism, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and this study tests whether VR news can be an effective tool for learning about climate change. Based on results from a controlled, in-person laboratory experiment comparing an immersive VR news story to 360°-video and text-with-images versions, we find no main effects on the learning outcomes. However, we do find indirect effects on cognitive elaboration, which are conditional on preexisting knowledge about climate change. Results are discussed in light of their implications for theory about learning in multimedia environments, as well as their implications for the science of science communication.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests related to this study.

Data availability statement

Data supporting the analyses are available on Mendeley at DOI: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/sk9hmp4mxx/1.

Notes

¹ The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Alabama (#19-OR-125) on May 8, 2019.

² Data supporting the analyses are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/sk9hmp4mxx.1.

³ Of the subjects who “failed” this manipulation check, 89% were in the 360° condition, but indicated that they were in the VR condition. These responses are probably an artifact of question-choice labeling rather than a product of inaccurate recall, as 360° video is a form of virtual reality. We conducted the analyses excluding the subjects who failed both manipulation checks (3 subjects, or 2%), and the results were substantively similar to those reported here.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by (1) the Mass Communication and Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, (2) the Research Grants Committee at The University of Alabama, (3) the Institute for Communication and Information Research at The University of Alabama, (4) the Department of Journalism & Creative Media at The University of Alabama, and (5) the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama.

Notes on contributors

Matthew Barnidge

Matthew Barnidge (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism & Creative Media at The University of Alabama. He specializes in news audiences and political communication on digital media platforms, and he’s especially interested in how these are shaped by technological affordances, cultural norms, and social policies in multiple national contexts.

Lindsey A. Sherrill

Lindsey A. Sherrill (Ph.D., The University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of North Alabama. Her research interests include media sociology and political communication, particularly the role of entrepreneurial media in social movement mobilization.

Bumsoo Kim

Bumsoo Kim (Ph.D., The University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism & Communication at Joongbu University. His research specializes in digital media, political communication, and local communication ecology.

Eric Cooks

Eric Cooks (Ph.D., The University of Alabama) is a post-doctoral associate in the College of Journalism and Communications and the UF Health Cancer Center at the University of Florida. His research examines the use of virtual human technology in developing telemedicine interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening among minority populations.

Danielle Deavours

Danielle Deavours (Ph.D., The University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Montevallo. She specializes in media sociology, nonverbal communication, crisis communication, and journalistic practice.

Michael Viehouser

Michael Viehouser (M.S., Eastern Washington University) is a doctoral student in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama. His research interests include the intersectionality of LGBTQ+ minorities, religious communication, and identity.

Ryan Broussard

Ryan Broussard (Ph.D., The University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Sam Houston State University. His research focuses on the sociology of media production and the intersection of sports, social issues and politics.

Jiehua Zhang

Jiehua Zhang (M.S., Beijing Jiaotong University) is a doctoral student in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama. Her research interests include political communication, digital journalism, and emerging media.