Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) journalism has become one of the popular formats of journalism, where people experience presence, empathy, and immersion through VR technology in digital environments. Although the term ‘virtual’ may appear to be the opposite of ‘real,’ the boundary between virtuality and reality has become blurred due to the virtual embodiment being part of reality for participants. As VR and real virtuality converge, little is known about the ethical issues in producing computer-generated imagery (CGI) immersive journalism and the viewers’ responses to CGI VR news reporting. Our study applied a concurrent mixed-method approach, including in-depth interviews with eight CGI professionals from the U.K. and a quantitative survey in Taiwan, to understand the production issues, ethical concerns, and audience perceptions toward CGI immersive journalism. Results from the interviews suggested that digital journalists need to rethink their ethical codes, particularly the representation of truth while producing news stories using CGI images and VR. Findings from the post-test survey showed that both immersive presence and interactivity in VR news resulted in a greater formation of believing and motivations to take action regarding the topic presented in the VR news.
Keywords
Background: the emergence of CGI immersive journalism
A paradigm shift occurred from traditional journalism to digital journalism, a new style of news reporting in the digital age (Herbert, 2000), which utilizes digital technologies to gather, produce, and deliver news stories to an audience (Kawamoto, 2003). Nowadays, journalists have access to a wide variety of tools for creating news stories, including virtual reality (VR), which has been applied in journalism since 2009 and is widely discussed in news production. While VR is not a novel technology in fields such as films, gaming, or journalism, it is becoming increasingly important for news production and immersive computing. For instance, Meta, which manages Facebook, has heavily invested in VR as the next frontier of media technology, where VR will be the next reality in the virtual world.
Immersive journalism, which involves engagement and first-person presence, is a new form of journalism production for news professionals to explore (de la Peña et al., 2010; Sánchez, 2020). Such digital technology creates a sensation that allows the body to occupy a space, enabling experiences from a first-person perspective (Domínguez-Martín, 2017). de la Peña et al. (2010), one of the pioneers in digital journalism, explicated the concept of immersive journalism as the production of news in a form that allows people to have personal experiences of the event presented in news stories. They further explained that immersive journalism enables viewers to enter into ‘a virtually recreated scenario representing the news story’ (de la Peña et al., 2010: 292).
VR has the potential to be a new model for journalists to produce a unique storytelling. To create immersive journalism, VR is a commonly used approach. One way of creating a VR news story is using 360-degree videos. For instance, a documentary produced by Chris Milk, Clouds Over Sidra, allows people to experience the Syrian refugee crisis through a 360-degree VR film with either VR headsets, Google Cardboard, or their own computers. When users watch 360-degree videos with VR headsets, users engage in the movement by moving their heads, and they can look in any direction due to either three degrees of freedom (3DoF) or six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) offered in 360-degree videos (Cho et al., 2019). 360-degree videos can be applied to various topics, such as environmental issues, nature and sustainability, crisis and disasters. The New York Times applied the same technology to create The Land of Salt and Fire. 1 Viewers can witness the hottest place on earth and overview its landscape through 360 panorama photos. By rotating 360-degree video scenes, audiences can also observe the fine details to get a sense of the surrounding. However, users cannot walk freely in a fully panoramic space because they occupy a fixed space (Pavlik, 2021).
The other type of immersive journalism is three-dimensional (3D) VR or computer-generated imagery (CGI) VR (de la Peña et al., 2010), which is also called CGI immersive journalism in this study. The technology of CGI has been borrowed from online games (Jennett et al., 2008; Hou et al., 2012; Burns and Fairclough, 2015) and gradually applied in digital journalism. In 2012, the New York Times ‘Snow Fall’, a digital longform format for tablet news, used computer graphics to create scene-setting data visualizations and let the viewers get a sense of the landscape around the Cascade Mountains and track the skiers’ path (Dowling and Vogan, 2015). Work by Forensic Architecture such as Environmental racism in Death Alley, Louisiana, and Russian strike on the Kyiv TV Tower involves 3D modeling, photogrammetry, satellite imagery, and multimedia formats to document an event (Niland, 2022). Using 3D visualization technology to tell a news story can not only engage the audience with the news content but also help them understand how an event occurred. In CGI VR, people’s physical environment is completely replaced by a digital environment (Keshav, 2018). Users perceive immersion through the movable embodiment of avatars (Kool, 2016) and experience a closer look at events, such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Euronews, 2021).
Indeed, both 360-degree video and CGI technology can be used for in-depth news coverage, allowing news viewers to experience a sense of immersion and gain a better understanding of an issue or event. However, the prevalence of CGI VR in news reporting raises ethical considerations that must be addressed to uphold traditional codes of journalism ethics. As Deuze (2005) mentioned, journalism’s ideology involves five values: public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics. Evidently, multimedia, particularly CGI VR, has caused the challenge of perceived ‘truth’ in journalism (Deuze, 2005). Perceived credibility of VR journalism is determined by both technological properties and journalistic principles (Mabrook, 2021). In CGI immersive journalism, truth is conveyed by representing reality through both senses and experience; even so, a recreated reality using CGI can present challenges in accurately representing the objective reality that the journalists experienced. For instance, de la Peña’s CGI work, Project Syria, employed the deep CGI immersive concept to recreate the street scene in Syria. Viewers may be aware that the media content depicts a created and constructed version of Syria, and only the storytelling is real. The same constructed so-called truth exists in We Wait, a recreated terrifying experience through CGI modeling, depicting a Syrian migrant crossing the sea and seeking asylum in Europe. All the stories are based on real events and reported by journalists, but they are recreated rather than represented.
Guided by the values and ethics in traditional journalism, the most fundamental principle is to report news stories based on facts and truth. However, unlike other digital news formats, CGI news relies on constructed and recreated scenes to tell a story, and not represent the actual scenes through the lens of TV cameras or 2D images. As Uskali and Ikonen (2021: 52) pointed out, it is important to examine the ‘ethical implications of immersive technologies for journalism’, and it is also a reasonably new ethical challenge for CGI Immersive Journalism when producing a true story using CGI VR.
‘Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information’ (Society of Professional Journalists, 2014). It is crucial for journalists to seek truth and report a story based on objective truth in CGI Immersive Journalism. Meanwhile, the narrative of CGI news reporting should follow the ethical principle of objectivity, which requires journalists to remain neutral and withhold their emotions and prejudices (Smith, 2008). When CGI technology is used in journalism, objectivity is one of the ethical concerns that is frequently raised in VR news production. For journalists, objectivity is the core of professional ethics to earn the trust of an audience (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2001). Objectivity involves the separation of facts and opinions. The mission of journalists is to inform people about what and how events are occurring instead of changing their perspectives on those events (de Burgh, 2000). Journalists still need to maintain objectivity and follow the ethics of telling the truth in CGI VR news reporting.
Thus, this study aims to identify the ethical challenges associated with using CGI VR in news reporting by examining the process used by journalists and CGI producers to construct true and accurate news stories. Additionally, it is important to collect empirical data to explore the impact of CGI immersive journalism on news production and audience perceptions due to most of the data collection was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting, which it is increasingly necessary to study how news viewers react to VR immersive content in real-world environments. We used a concurrent mixed-method approach that embraces the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative methods to get a more in-depth understanding of multiple perspectives, standpoints, and positions (Johnson et al., 2007). Through a mixed-method design, we can get a holistic view to understand news production using CGI VR and its impact on the viewing experience. We conducted in-depth interviews (qualitative data) with eight professionals in the UK to capture the process of CGI news production, identify the influence of CGI immersive content in journalism, and the ethical issues in CGI reporting. We also conducted a post-test survey (quantitative data) in Taiwan to understand the audience’s reactions to CGI immersive journalism.
The digital world: Virtual reality
Immersive technology tends to increase users’ subjective sense of presence—the subjective experience of being in one place or environment (Soliman et al., 2017). Many studies examining immersive technology have centered on the specific functions of VR, for example, presence, interactivity, and immersion (Tribusean, 2020). VR refers to ‘a computer-generated (CG)/digital environment that can be experienced and interacted with as if that environment were real’ (Jerald, 2016: 9). What VR does best as a medium is to offer users the opportunity to ‘see for themselves’ and to ‘be there’ (Rodríguez, 2018) from their first-person perspective, where ‘the user enters the virtual experience as if present as a participant or virtual witness to events or experiences’ (Pavlik, 2021: 5). The feeling of ‘being there’ ties in with the concept of presence, which is a key component in making the virtual world seems more real, by giving the user a sense of being a part of it (Archer and Finger, 2018). As Kukkakorpi and Pantti (2020; 787) explained: ‘During presence, the users become less aware of the technology, which enables the perception that they are in the space and are experiencing the events directly’.
The successful exploitation of VR systems relies on maintaining close integration between such VR worlds and the human operator (Kalawsky, 2002). Interactivity, which plays an important role in achieving immersion experiences in VR, refers to ‘a form of exchange or communication dialog between users and the content experience or with others’ (Pavlik, 2021: 9). VR attempts to create a believable experience through interactivity (Ryan, 2015), which designers or producers need to consider ‘how interactivity might be crafted and designed as a means to lowering barriers to immersive experience’ (Biggin, 2017: 62). Thus, to achieve an immersive presence in VR, it is essential to allow users to perceive interactivity and perform physical actions that enable them to view the virtual world from their perspective.
VR technology is meta-media that can dynamically simulate rather than merely statistically represent (Lauria, 2001). The core concept of VR is centered on creating personal experiences (Garner, 2018), which the individuals’ reactions may differ. The first level of reaction to VR storytelling is the feeling of being there. The subsequent reaction involves emotional responses, that is, empathy, compassion, and embodiment (Shin, 2018). A presented virtual world can be seen or felt more real through emotional reactions. According to Shin and Biocca (2018: 2807), ‘empathizing can help to more strongly combine VR and physical reality, thus producing higher credibility’.
VR is a commonly used immersive technology to create immersive media content. Presence, feeling of being there, and interactivity are three decisive components to achieve immersion, which results in different levels of reaction to VR content and makes the content more credible and believable. However, when journalists use VR to tell a news story, they should be cautious about how created VR content influences their perceived feelings, in turn, their judgments of the truth—an ethical concern should be addressed in CGI immersive journalism. As more news organizations adopt VR technology to create news content, more research is needed to examine the process of VR news production and the impact of VR news on viewers’ experience.
Creating the reality: Real virtuality
Real virtuality can be considered a step-change from virtual reality (Chalmers et al., 2009). The real feeling of reality or real virtuality helps users to become thoroughly immersed in VR scenes. As Madary and Metzinger (2016) argue, the discussion of reality along the Reality-Virtuality Continuum is important because VR headsets can allow users to juggle between different scenes created through virtual, augmented, and substitutional reality. thus blurring the boundaries between different immersive environments. Therefore, it is important to discuss reality along the Reality-Virtuality Continuum. Current VR research has covered studies on multi-modal interaction, sensory inputs, and motion inputs, all of which contribute to increasing the user’s sense of immersion in the virtual worlds (Burdea et al., 1996; Wilson and Soranzo 2015). If virtual environments were regularly used as valuable tools in media content, they would create an experience as if we were ‘there’ in the real world, which is often referred to as ‘there reality’ or ‘real virtuality’ (Chalmers and Ferko, 2008). As identified so far, there are about 20 different types of ‘feeling senses’ that can create real virtuality. Senses may influence each other significantly. The most common senses are heat, cold, pain, and pressure or touch receptors (Chalmers et al., 2009). For example, the CGI VR news, The Offshore Wind Farm, used in this study, offers the experience of feeling senses. The producers created multi-sensory environments by reproducing such sense-triggered experiences in real-time, for example, the feeling of a cool wind blowing while viewing the VR news.
Another definition of ‘real virtuality’ comes from Castells (2010), stating that all realities are communicated and constructed through symbols. To some extent, all symbols are displaced concerning their assigned semantic meaning. Thus, all communication is the construction of real virtuality, as defined by Castells (2010: 404): “It is a system in which reality itself (that is, people's material/symbolic existence) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a virtual image setting in the world of make believe, in which appearances are not just on the screen through which the experience is communicated, but they become the experience.”
Following Castells’ argument, Baudrillard (1988) argued that the fake and real converged because of the implosion and constructed hyperreality, indicating that it is not easy to distinguish between real and not real in virtual activities (Welsh, 2011). Castells (2010: 403) further explained the blurred boundary between virtual and real by addressing that ‘there is no separation between “reality” and symbolic representation… The electronic integration of all communication modes from the typographic to the multisensorial is not its inducement of virtual reality but the construction of real virtuality’.
Real virtuality in CGI immersive journalism has sparked debates about ethical concerns, significantly as hyperreality, which enables users to participate and build the hyperreal (Cover et al., 2022), may intensify the perceived reality through CGI visuals. Several news organizations, for example, Reuters and Associated Press, argued that ‘such reconstructions are not ethical unless the audience is made aware of the aesthetic choices inherent in their composition’ (Fisher and Gifreu-Castells, 2022: 3), which highlights the representation of truth and interpretations by audience. CGI immersive journalism can bring the facts in storytelling, where truth can still be delivered through CGI visuals (de la Peña et al., 2010). To avoid misperceptions caused by using CGI VR content, it is important to initiate more conversations about ethical thinking in CGI immersive journalism, which will help journalists and news producers to follow journalism values when creating VR news with CGI visuals. The new CGI immersive journalism could claim truth in reporting when it adheres to the principles and ethics of journalism (Mabrook, 2021).
Convergence of virtual reality and real virtuality
VR is a term that appears to contradict itself, as it seems to be ‘an oxymoron between the adjective virtual and the noun reality’ (Steinicke, 2016: viii). Steinicke (2016: 20) further explained ‘VR science and fiction seem to be closely related, and there is enormous potential for common visions and perspectives at the intersection of technology and fiction’. Along with his argument, VR creates illusions that make unreal things seem real. On the other hand, as virtuality becomes real, the concept of real virtuality seems to be another oxymoron like VR. The perception of feeling actually being there is created through a multi-sensory virtual environment in real virtuality (Chalmers et al., 2009). Therefore, virtuality and reality could be considered the same thing, making it difficult for people to discern the differences between the two.
Following this line of reasoning, the convergence of VR and real virtuality creates a new communicative process for users in an immersive environment. During the process, the users could perceive reality when immersed in a VR environment, suggesting that VR has overcome the confines of the equipment and achieved a sense of real virtuality. To a certain extent, the audience may become suspicious of reality when virtual reality and real virtuality converge.
Typically, convergence is regarded as a metaphor for technology development. According to Pavlik (2001), convergence can facilitate a more efficient and democratic medium for journalism and the public in the twenty-first century. Media convergence is a broad concept based on various developments (Küng et al., 2008). Jenkins (2006) emphasized that convergence is an ongoing process; that is, convergence can be perceived ‘as the process of socially constructing a new technological system for news production’ (Spyridou and Veglis, 2016: 102).
There are two different interpretations of convergence in VR and real virtuality. Based on the perspective of Chalmers et al. (2009), real virtuality refers to a true high-fidelity multi-sensory virtual environment that delivers real-world modalities naturally. VR functions through visual and auditory phenomena, and the sense of touch may also be included. In this conceptualization, the convergence of VR and real virtuality leads to a better communicative process, enabling the audience to believe what they see (Figure 1). According to Castells (2010), a culture of real virtuality is one in which make-believe is in the making, and reality is only viewed as symbolic. The convergence of VR and real virtuality in an immersive environment is a new type of convergence in journalism, which makes CGI and VR immersive journalism a new trend allowing the audience to have a more intense presence in journalistic works (Figure 2). Convergence model 1 Believing. Convergence model 2 Make believing.
The ethical thinking in CGI immersive journalism
CGI immersive journalism presents news stories in a form that allows people to have personal experiences of situations. As immersive journalism—personal, interactive experiences of news events—develops, three essential elements, that is, flow, cognitive absorption, and presence, are increasingly required for creating immersion (Brautović et al., 2017). The precondition of feeling real is an immersive experience. In this situation, ‘people tend to respond realistically to virtual situations and events even though they know that these are not real’ (de la Peña et al., 2010: 293). For instance, a story, We Wait, about 18 refugees waiting to be rescued by a boat off the shore of Turkey, invited viewers to experience the real-world refugee crisis through an immersive VR experience.
Immersion is ‘an objective description of the technical capabilities of a VR system that describes the level of detail with which a virtual environment can be rendered’ (Wilson and Soranzo, 2015: 2). Further, Shin and Biocca (2018: 2816) specified how immersion functions, ‘when users confirm the qualities and obtain satisfaction from the qualities, immersion is ecologically reconstructed, integrating quality, cognition, and context’. A well-designed CGI VR news content provides users to immerse themselves in a safe way and enhance new ethical reflections within a virtual environment (Cotton, 2021). VR journalism is a reconstruction of journalists’ own experiences, bringing the same ethical questions as traditional types of reporting (Palmer, 2021).
Users’ internal cognitive processes are also crucial to immersion because external factors cannot force individuals on how and what to process. The suspension of disbelief is crucial to create an immersive experience (Bates, 1992). In CGI VR Journalism, the journalists would need to facilitate the audience to be able to suspend disbelief in the story through well-constructed narratives, which in turn increases their willingness to engage with a story (Frittaion et al., 2010). The mechanism of suspension of disbelief will advance persuasion for audiences to tolerate a perceived lack of realism in a narrative (Weber and Wirth, 2014).
Illusion is another pivotal element in CGI VR. Wilson and Soranzo (2015) mentioned that VR creates the illusion that the viewers can interact with objects in a virtual environment, which may result in a higher degree of sensing ‘real’. Viewers undoubtedly know what they see is an illusion, but their physical reactions and emotional responses would act as if it is real (Steed et al., 2018). Viewers’ realistic response can be triggered by four types of illusions: place illusion that indicates a sense of being there; plausibility illusion, that is, a perception of the surrounding is really happening (Slater, 2009); body ownership illusion, in which users experience an artificial body/avatar as their own (Maselli and Slater, 2013); and agency illusion, which involves a sense of the authorship of actions that users can control the movements in a VR world (Banakou and Slater, 2014). Owing to the interaction of place and plausibility illusions, illusions can still occur in users’ perceptions despite being aware that the virtual environment is a mere simulation (Steinicke, 2016).
CGI VR as a form of immersive journalism is becoming a unique way of news story reporting that can effectively be used to foster social empathy with the situations covered by journalism (Rodríguez, 2018). In an experience of immersion, empathy is the core of the discussion (Kukkakorpi and Pantti, 2020). Hassan (2020) argued that the narrative of VR Journalism could transform narrative orientation from third-person into first-person. The users could have experienced empathy through a first-person VR narrative in an immersive environment. Archer and Finger (2018: 3) found ‘users who experienced the VR treatments reported higher levels of immersion and were more likely to report a desire to take action or find out more about the topic as a result’, and so did empathy. Sánchez Laws (2020) described empathy as people’s emotions but could form emotions to rationality.
Current work that calls itself ‘immersive reflects a valorization of cultural forms that offer the chance to do more than “just” observe or study’ (Frieze, 2016: 16). Immersive Journalism focuses on modes of productivity assigned to enable audiences to be immersive in a virtual setting and invite audiences to position themselves as active participants. Unlike traditional news reporting using the third-person narrative to tell a story, CGI VR news not only offers news viewers a first-person narrative to experience an event but also tries to re-create those events that have already gone or have not yet happened events.
Truth in journalism refers to the presentation of objective facts (Fuller, 2018). Immersive Journalism offers both subjective and objective experiences. The objective experience can arise from observable behaviors in the virtual environment that users can relate to their daily life experience, whereas subjective experience, such as the feeling of being there, requires a certain level of engagement to create the subjective feelings (Chan, 2021; Slater and Wilbur, 1997). The balance between presenting the truth and creating subjective experiences in CGI Immersive Journalism is crucial, particularly in the VR world where storyliving forms subjective experience instead of storytelling.
Data and methodology
As Slater (2021: 3) called to attention, ‘a critical problem is the lack of data; prognoses are based on speculation rather than empirical findings’. Therefore, to gain a better understanding of storytelling in CGI VR and the impact of CGI immersive journalism on VR news production and audience responses, we collected two datasets by applying the mixed-method approach: in-depth interviews as qualitative data with eight professionals from the UK and a post-test survey as quantitative data conducted in Taiwan.
Selections of study interviewees and survey locations
In our qualitative data collection, the selection of interviewees was based on their experienced profession in CGI news production. The BBC is one of the leading news organizations investing in producing CGI VR news, and it equips a VR team dedicated to creating VR and AR news content (BBC news labs, n.d.). Accordingly, we invited eight experts with profound CGI VR experience from BBC to participate in the interviews. We asked them to share their prior experience creating CGI VR news and ethical concerns about presenting news stories with CGI VR, which would help to establish new guidance in CGI immersive journalism.
For the quantitative data collection, we were curious about the acceptance and perceived experience of CGI VR news among Taiwanese audiences. CGI immersive journalism is still a novel concept for Taiwanese news organizations. The development of CGI VR news is at an early stage, not to mention the ethical thinking related to producing VR news with CGI images. Due to this issue being rarely discussed, the first author of this study created the first CGI VR news in Taiwan, The Offshore Wind Farm, which was used to examine the audience’s responses to CGI VR news. It is a story about the hundreds of wind turbines that will be built along the west coast of Taiwan between 2026 and 2035. This CGI VR news aims to evoke awareness of green energy and the potential harm to the environment. The script of The Offshore Wind Farm was based on narratives collected from local residents, fishermen, and environmental experts through interviews. To depict the potential issues and concerns related to the offshore wind farm, the producer created a scene with thousands of offshore wind powers on the sea surface that have not been built yet. CGI VR can help journalists to delineate a realistic future for news viewers to better understand the story and foresee the impact of an offshore wind farm.
Qualitative data: In-depth interviews
Eight British CGI professionals were invited to share the experience of producing CGI news stories and discuss guiding ethics for producing CGI VR journalism. A chain-referral sampling was applied to identify interviewees with professional experience in CGI news production. This study focused on CGI works made by the BBC, particularly as We Wait and 1943 Berlin Blitz. Audiences can watch these works on MetaQuest headsets, that is, Oculus Rift S. 1943 Berlin Blitz reconstructed the historical event in WWII using an original audio soundtrack to recreate the scenes and the planes with a high level of detail (BBC, 2018), which gives the audience a more immersive CGI experience through sounds and visuals, and also brings them back in time to experience how and where did it happen.
Unstructured interviews were conducted to understand what are the truth and ethical issues in producing CGI immersive journalism. Eight professionals from the UK, including VR Broadcasting Journalists, VR Senior Team, Immersive Technologist, and engineers in audio/visuals, were invited to participate in this study. We conducted eight interviews individually and each interview was about 60–90 minutes long. Due to the diverse background and specialties, using unstructured interviews allows us to have a deeper discussion and understand how they view the representation of truth in CGI immersive journalism.
The fundamental concepts in immersive technology and CGI immersive journalism led to the development of specific interview questions. First, we needed to consider how to immerse the audience in the ‘journalistic’ environment without it seeming like a fictional movie. This meant that producers needed to highlight the ‘truth’ about VR content by presenting objective facts. Second, due to perceived presence and empathy generated by VR content, the producers should pay attention to the boundary between an over-stimuli world and truth to ensure that facts were conveyed in CGI VR news. Third, the purpose of CGI immersive journalism is to explore advanced technology but also facilitate accountability of news reporting for the audience. This means that, although audiences interact with CGI, they should still perceive journalistic thinking despite they are not able to see any journalists in the content. To uncover the ethical challenges in CGI immersive journalism, we employed these interview questions to get more insights from the eight CGI experts.
Quantitative data: Survey
This study used a quantitative survey to capture audience perceptions toward CGI immersive journalism. Based on the characteristics of immersive journalism, two hypotheses were proposed to understand the formation of belief and corresponding actions after watching a CGI VR news story (see Figure 3). In H1, we predict that the level of perceived immersion positively relates to (a) believing in VR news and (b) actions. As to H2, the level of interactivity positively relates to (a) believing in VR news and (b) actions. The research framework for acceptance of VR news.
Participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Prior to a post-test questionnaire, participants were asked to watch a 10-minute CGI VR news story, The Offshore Wind Farm, with HTC VIVE VR headsets. This VR news story was created using 3D models in real proportions based on panoramic photos of the scenes, reconstructing what it looks like around the offshore wind farm. The Offshore Wind Farm presented three different points of view from those of a fisherman, an engineer, and an environment expert. Participants can use their own first-person perspective to see and interact with objects to experience the life of an anxious fisherman and an endangered humpback dolphin while watching the VR news. In doing so, participants can get a glimpse of the conflicts among green energy, fisheries, and the environment. The Offshore Wind Farm also provides a more concrete scene to help the viewers understand the future of the western offshore in Taiwan.
In news reporting, VR can conquer time and space and create dramatic effects for people to immerse themselves in otherwise ‘boring’ scientific reporting. When watching The Offshore Wind Farm, news viewers can fly in the sky and interact with objects through an avatar. During the viewing experience with a VR headset, participants can also experience multi-sensory delivered in real-time by applying the AoEs+ technology
2
that can maximizelocomotion experience in an immersive environment. They can feel the wind blowing when standing along the shore, sense the construction vibration while building the offshore wind farms, and hear the audible noise caused by wind power generation at this location-based CGI VR experience exhibition. Feels-like perceptions increase perceived presence in the virtual environment. Our CGI VR news offers a similar CGI experience delivered by 1943 Berlin Blitz, which CGI VR makes the news more immersive through senses, that is, sight, sound, and touch. After exposure to the VR video, a paper–pencil questionnaire was presented to the participants. Audiences were asked to express attitudes and opinions regarding the experience of VR news and presented news topic (Figures 4 and 5). The screenshots of the VR news story The Offshore Wind Farm. The exhibition of The Offshore Wind Farm.
A total of 244 participants watched and completed the survey while they attended The Offshore Wind Farm exhibition at Huashan Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan. Of the sample, there were more females (53.7%) than males (43.9%). In terms of age, 4.1% were aged 12 to 17 years, 56.8% were aged 18 to 29, 17.2% were aged 30 to 39, 11.1% were aged 40 to 49, and 3.3% were aged 60 years or above. For education, 4.1% attended elementary school, 2.9% finished high school, 59.8% had a college degree, and 32.8% had a university degree.
Based on the framework in quantitative research, four essential concepts were measured: immersive presence, interactivity, believing, and actions, which allow researchers to explore the audience’s perceived immersion in VR news, perceived interactivity, their formation of believing in the news story, and their intention to take action.
The measure for immersive presence was modified from the scale by Shin and Biocca (2018). Respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions of immersion after watching the VR news with the HTC VIVE VR headset. On a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree, two items were used in the questionnaire: ‘When I watched the CGI news video, The Offshore Wind Farm, with the VR headset, I found myself becoming more involved in the topic presented in the VR news’, and ‘When I watched the CGI news video, The Offshore Wind Farm, with the VR headset, I found myself immersive strongly in the topic because I felt as though I was in reality or being there’. The score for immersive presence was constructed by averaging the scores for the two items (M = 4.25, SD = 0.60).
To capture the perceived interactivity, one item with a 5-point Likert scale was adapted from Biggin (2017). Participants were asked to share their opinions of the news presented with VR: ‘I enjoyed the interactivity in the VR news when I watched The Offshore Wind Farm with the VR device’ (M = 4.24, SD = 0.83).
The measure of believing consisted of three items, which referred to different levels of believing—awareness, comprehension, and trust in the VR news—that led to viewers believing the story was real. This concept was employed to examine how the audience perceived the VR news, how the news influenced their interpretations, and how VR news created a sense of perceived reality via VR technology. On a 5-point Likert scale, the three items were: ‘I’m aware that the content was created with VR technology with CGI visuals’, ‘I understood the truth/facts better when news was presented using VR technology with CGI visuals’, and ‘I believe the news produced with VR technology can gain the trust of audiences’ (M = 4.29, SD = 0.51, α = 0.62).
The concept of taking action was considered as the outcome after the participants watched the VR news. To what extent did the VR news presented with CGI visuals encourage the audience to take action regarding the related topics, content, or even the VR news itself. Participants were asked to state their levels of agreement with two statements: ‘After watching the news with the VR headset, I cared more about the topic’ and ‘I am interested in watching more interactive CGI news in the future after watching The Offshore Wind Farm with the VR headset’ (M = 4.37, SD = 0.52).
Results
To fully understand the impact of CGI immersive journalism on news production and the audience’s perceptions regarding VR news and the formation of believing after watching the VR news, both quantitative and qualitative data (i.e., a survey and interviews with eight professionals in the UK) were employed.
Quantitative survey
Correlation analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrated that immersive presence (r = 0.561, p < .01) and interactivity (r = 0.401, p < .01) were both positively related to believing, indicating the greater perceived immersion, the greater the belief in the VR news. Moreover, perceived interactivity in VR news could also facilitate the formation of believing. Thus, H1a and H2a were supported.
Means, standard deviations, and correlations (N = 244).
Note: *p < .05; **p < .01, ***p < .001.
After testing the hypotheses, differences between the four variables were examined by education and gender. However, there were no significant differences between the variables for either educational group or gender. Meanwhile, compared to comprehension (M = 4.24, SD = 0.73, t(243) = 4.78, p < .001) and trust in news (M = 4.12, SD = 0.73, t(243) = 7.12, p < .001), the score for awareness was the highest (M = 4.49, SD = 0.58). Furthermore, the difference between comprehension and trust in the news was statistically significant, t(243) = 2.41, p < .01, indicating the score for comprehension (M = 4.24, SD = 0.73) was higher than that for trust in the news (M = 4.12, SD = 0.73).
Results of the quantitative survey showed that VR news viewers constructed their believing and formed understanding of the presented issue from this immersive narrative environment due to immersive presence and interactivity. This reminds us that it is important to provide sensory experiences through sound, visual images, and haptic sensing as real as possible. When the audience’s eyes are fed signals according to head movements, they were likely to become more immersed in the features of VR, enabling them to obtain the truth of the story.
In-depth interviews
CGI VR helps news viewers understand the truth through experience and add more entertainment value to the news.
Truth is a significant concern in journalism. However, the question is: What constitutes truth in CGI immersive journalism? It may appear to be closer to empiricism, in which journalists attempt to capture the truth through video recordings and present it to their audiences. Interestingly, in We Wait, the BBC placed the audience in a boat with a Syrian family about to cross the sea to Greece,
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which the VR viewers can experience how the family felt. The story was mainly narrated using CGI, which indicates that journalists could effectively deliver the truth using CGI VR technology. Under such circumstances, journalists can apply CGI VR to recreate a dramatic scene that is difficult to capture in reality and to tell an interesting story with fewer limitations than using traditional media. However, will what we call ‘the truth’ in CGI immersive journalism be the same as the one in traditional journalism? Interviewee A stated: “In CGI, I think to call it exact truth is nonsense. It’s something to help you understand the truth, but lots of other things can help you understand the truth about issues too, and about human nature; so, these things are all on a scale.”
In We Wait, audiences experience what really happened to those people waiting on the beach for boats to take them, and also experience the boats capsizing and the people being rescued by coast guards. We Wait was recreated using CGI and reproduced in VR news as real as possible to encourage viewers to empathize with their situation and gain greater understanding of the story. One interviewee also stated: “We Wait is a CGI experience. It’s a great way to create an environment and to tell a story immersively in a way that traditional journalism wouldn’t be able to do. It adds a new dimension to journalism. There is a chance to engage the audience because we are rejecting a traditional format of reporting. There’s an opportunity to not damp down the issues, but entertainment value is also increased. People who are more digitally engaged might absorb that experience more than by just watching a video of the news.”
According to the arguments above, this leads to a new interpretation about what is true in journalism since journalists can recreate truth using digital technology. Perceived truth in the convergence of VR and real virtuality was closer to Model 2 (see Figure 2). In VR world, reality is viewed through symbols, which audiences can perceive journalistic ideas through CGI visuals. This is what CGI immersive journalism (Domínguez-Martín, 2015; Hardee, 2016; Sirkkunen et al., 2016) or VR journalism (Aronson-Rath et al., 2016) can deliver and traditional journalism cannot achieve. The interview data showed that advantages of using CGI VR in CGI immersive journalism. Although CGI VR cannot represent the exact truth, it provides a new opportunity to news reporting by adding more entertainment value through presence, immersion, and emotional reactions.
The representation of exact truth cannot be achieved in CGI VR.
Interviewees discussed another CGI work made by BBC, 1943 Berlin Blitz, which was made from a piece of archive film about an intrepid journalist who flew on a Lancaster bomber during a bombing raid over Bern and Berlin in World War II. The editor of the BBC Archive, Peter Rippon stated: “We have been overwhelmed by the response to Berlin Blitz so far. People are finding it profoundly moving. The authenticity of the audio and the nobility of the characters involved, combined with virtual reality, means audiences can now relive the past with an intensity not previously possible” (BBC, 2018).
1943 Berlin Blitz is an authentic film copied in CGI. One of the interviewees said: “In Berlin Blitz, we have created very accurately a Lancaster bomber. We used a piece of audio that was created by a BBC war journalist. He was on a Lancaster bomber plane bombing Berlin in 1943, so it’s real, real audio from that event, and we recreated the plane with great accuracy. You can see the streets of Berlin being bombed. We do as much research we can to make sure it’s as accurate as we can make it. Yes, we’ve reconstructed it, but it’s a very accurate reconstruction in CGI.”
The truth in the 1943 Berlin Blitz was closer to convergence Model 1 (see Figure 2). Journalists are responsible for presenting facts to audiences (Deuze, 2005). Accordingly, journalists were cautious about rebuilding the truth using CGI technology. Using immersive media to create VR news should not threaten perceived reality. Therefore, journalists and CGI developers need to realize the importance of preventing users from misperceptions in CGI environments.
Consideration of viewers’ physical limitations is needed when creating CGI VR content
The question of how to build an appropriate immersive environment for the audience becomes a critical issue as CGI immersive journalism develops, leading to new ethical concerns about exploring the new technology. Regarding the work by the BBC, we heard about concerns of using CGI VR. One interviewee stated: “There was a very early example in which you had a headset. One of the first things was that you were standing on the edge of a building. The graphics were actually terrible—like, really poorly rendered—but people were afraid every time. They put a level plank of wood on the floor, with a lip about this high, and your toes hung over the edge, making you feel like you were on the edge of a building, and everyone’s heart rate went up, and people were afraid of things that were obviously not real at all.”
Though CGI VR news can increase engagement and emotional responses through immersion, it may cause a backfire effect when viewers have negative experience, for example, feeling threats, being scared, or being over-stimulated due to sensory overload. Such situations raise ethical concerns about what it really feels like to be in a story. If journalists use CGI VR to deliver a war zone story for audiences, they might need some emotional counseling and support to ease their negative emotions. The undesired experience can cause negative effects that may expose users to some potential risks, for example, physical discomfort or psychological distress (LaMotte, 2017). Therefore, it is essential to think about how to balance the pursuit of exact truth and viewers reactions, particularly their physical and emotional limitations. Additionally, it is important to prepare and inform VR viewers about the media content right before their VR experience to prevent the negative consequences.
Concerns about lack of informative content due to over emphasis on immersion and emotional experience in CGI VR.
A follow-up ethical concern in CGI immersive journalism was addressed by another interviewee regarding news topics and intended effects: “I’ve seen a number of journalistic pieces where people are very secretly going to a war zone to capture the moment of “This was it! You can get an idea if I put somebody right there where I was, so people can really understand how terrifying it is.” This desire to capture the absolute realistic thing in the same way we do traditionally in a game is not just a question of ... I guess the ethics of journalism, but a question of the integrity of journalism.”
This area of journalistic ethics is greatly under-researched and requires debate. Protection is needed to be put in place to secure viewers’ safety, but this topic has not been widely discussed nowadays. One interviewee stated: “One thing I have always been quite worried by is empathy-driven content, where it’s very much VR being used for good. There’s no denying they’re very worthy causes, but I feel like it’s ... one line is being used all the time, and people have been encouraged to act on that, or make a donation in that name. That’s not really news to me. That’s not really journalism, because as a journalist you should be there telling the story, giving the facts—not trying to pull on people’s heart strings for empathy. I think that’s where I get quite worried about the technology.”
To synthesize the results from the in-depth interview, we need to discuss convergence Model 1 further regarding CGI immersive journalism. When news reporting is presented using CGI VR visuals, it is important to think seriously about the impacts of VR technology (Soliman et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2013) and VR content on cognitive and emotional responses. Our qualitative data also reflects the nature of complexity in empathy. Foxman et al. (2021) mentioned empathy is interconnected with VR features (i.e., immersion, presence, and embodiment), intense emotional connection, metaphors as a transportive feeling, and even prosocial behaviors. In immersive media, though manipulated empathy can trigger prosocial behaviors, it may cause deviant perceptions toward a news story itself.
Conclusion and discussion
The impact of convergence of VR and real virtuality on reactions
By synthesizing quantitative and qualitative data, this study discovered the ethical concerns and the impacts of CGI immersive journalism. News stories presented using VR technology with CGI visuals allow audiences to become more immersed in a virtual environment and still believe the VR content is true. Through immersive presence and interactivity, users can be transported into a news story, facilitating greater awareness and comprehension of the issues associated with offshore wind farms and perceived trust in CGI VR news. Our quantitative results are similar to the finding by Jeong et al. (2020), that the interactive nature of VR technologies can enhance the cognitive load to process the content compared to the format of traditional news. Our result about immersive presence is consistent with the key highlight found in the VR research by Archer and Finger (2018), which higher immersive presence the greater intention to take action, for example, getting more information or watching more VR news about the topic presented in the news story. A positive association is also verified between interactivity and believing as well as between interactivity and believing. Audience formed their understanding of the news story and experienced empathy through a convergence of VR and real virtuality. Under these circumstances, virtuality is not virtual; it is real for the audience who believes in journalistic content.
During VR news viewing, VR viewers obtain a holistic experience by flying above the offshore area and diving under the sea. Interestingly, none of the users who attended the exhibition of The Offshore Wind Farm at Huashan Creative Park in Taipei questioned the truth of flying because, in reality, people cannot own the ability to fly in the sky. Instead, VR viewers were concentrating on the issues about offshore wind turbines and the potential harm to the environment along the shore. This suggested that producers of CGI reporting should be cautious about the ethical rules of journalism when using VR technology to make people trust and believe in VR content.
The new ethical thinking and practice in CGI immersive journalism
As the media landscape has expanded, the journalism industry may be optimistic about the positive outcomes of CGI immersive journalism. However, the very notion of 'truth' is being questioned. The manipulation of VR technology could invent any facts. It should be noted that media practices and journalism are based on, and to some extent, thrive on presenting diverse perspectives to the public (Spence et al., 2011). Rose (2018) argued that VR could provide a context for non-fiction, but it might neglect the ethical risks associated with VR reporting. When producing VR news with CGI visuals, journalists should present facts, follow the guidelines of journalistic ethics with transparency, and avoid deceptive quality in VR news (Hassan, 2020; Kang et al., 2019).
VR-related research that we need to further investigate is to look into the instinctive reactions generated by VR technology in more depth. Owing to the levels of immersion, the viewing experience is entirely different when watching a news report on a flat-screen. Compared to 2D visuals, using head-mounted display simulation to present the virtual reality simulation results in higher immersion and perceived presence (Farra et al., 2008). Thus, once people put on VR headsets to watch VR news, their surroundings respond to their movements, and they become intensely involved in the stories. The pursuit of immersion is not the only goal in VR news even though it can increase the formation of believing and understanding. CGI producers need to keep in mind that they have the responsibility for what is shown to audiences. It is crucial to establish clear professional principles and rethink the ethics of reporting to guide journalists in producing VR news with CGI visuals in an ethical manner. CGI VR news producers, for example, content creators and journalists, are central to this new ethical thinking, as first-person narratives are often adopted in VR news reporting, where viewers learn about a news story by putting themselves in the story.
VR technology brings several ethical challenges, including the representation of truth and objectivity (Tribusean, 2020), the balance between entertainment value and informative VR content, and the consideration of potential risks in physical and emotional harm.
The main takeaway from this study is to be aware of ethical issues in producing VR news using CGI visuals. It is inevitable to involve more digitally-created images and head-mounted displays in news production, which is the merit of CGI immersive journalism. Through virtual reality simulation, the audience can experience a presented event that has not yet happened or already disappeared, for example, documentaries or historical incidents. However, the challenge remains in reconstructing reality in CGI immersive journalism. The balance of presenting facts and immersive experiences should be considered and kept in mind. Meanwhile, ethical considerations in CGI VR news production are not just limited to the issues of truth, use of VR technology, or different types of news topics and VR content. Viewers’ characteristics should also be taken into account, including different physical thresholds to VR experience, for example, age limitations, VR motion sickness, and psychological distress.
While pursuing a more immersive and vivid storyliving experience in CGI immersive journalism, current standards of journalism lack serious discussions about the ethical codes. When people are looking forward to the metaverse and more interactivity in virtual reality, it is vital for news producers to think about how VR news viewers perceive the news content through storyliving experiences constituted by narrative, empathy, interactivity, immersion, presence, and believability (Vallance and Towndrow, 2022). Three ethical considerations are proposed to offer guidance for CGI VR news production. First, journalists would need to get more cautious about news gathering due to the need for data-driven immersive VR content to avoid distorted representations of news events. Journalists should also be aware of the negative impacts on viewers’ emotional responses, where storyliving in VR might cause unintended physiological and emotional states, for example, anxiety and fears. Last, journalists should help VR news viewers to be cautious of the representation of VR news, as CGI VR news might cause a perception of hyperreality. VR technology can enhance the entertainment and engagement value of journalism when delivering news stories. Nonetheless, CGI immersive journalism must always uphold the responsibility for the truth in news reporting.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
