Journalism and Immersive Media: Challenges and Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

The introduction of immersive technologies in news media has triggered a shift in journalistic storytelling. Virtual reality, 360-degree videos, and spatial audio represent reality to make the user feels like they are where the events are taking place. The feeling of presence, the first-person experience, and the affective affordances are presented as three of the main features of this new journalism that reinforces the experiential dimension. Within the spectrum of immersive media, augmented reality is often included as a more viable alternative due to its portability, mobility, and ubiquity.

The informative ability of immersive media transform these technologies into valuable and intriguing tools for journalists when it comes to reporting on complex issues. Beyond the disruptive factor, their use is intended to allow audiences to get a better understanding of news stories and distant realities. Therefore, since their introduction in newsrooms became popular in the mid-2010s, these technologies have been employed to depict events such as armed conflicts, human trafficking, migratory flows like the refugee crisis in Europe, volcanic devastations, social injustices, and mass protests, among many other issues. However, with the first experimental wave behind us, the question now is whether newsrooms will set aside the tech hype and focus on meaning.

In short, the emergence of immersive journalism forces us to reflect on its possibilities and challenges. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to delve into the intersection between journalism and immersive media in general and the impact that these technologies have on the production of journalistic storytelling in particular. Both theoretical and empirical proposals will be accepted. Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The theoretical foundations of immersive journalism.
• The functions and features of immersive journalism.
• Users’ experience and immersive journalism.
• Methodological proposals for the study of immersive journalism.
• Immersive capabilities of extended reality for non-fictional storytelling.
• The ethics and normative boundaries of immersive journalism.
• Spatial narratives for news storytelling.
• Spatial audio and news stories.
• Augmented reality journalism.
• Case studies on extended realities and journalism.
• Business models for immersive journalism.
• Metaverses and journalism.
• Emotion-driven news and immersive media.

Prof. Dr. Sara Pérez Seijo
Dr. Paulo Nuno Vicente
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journalism and Media is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.