Progress or regression in the practice of immersive journalism? Immersive storytelling in the productions of the Samsung VR platform between 2015 and 2020

Abstract

Journalism has undergone countless changes in recent years, especially since the emergence of the network of net- works. As digital technologies have gone from strength to strength, new ways of doing journalism have also gained traction, focusing on the potential offered by “going digital”. This perspective goes hand in hand with another linked to virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video, with additional technical characteristics. Since 2010, there has been talk of so-called “immersive journalism”, which uses the above-mentioned technologies to narrate events, introducing a perspective into journalism that breaks with the classical concepts of working with information and making it availa- ble to the viewer, who now becomes an immersive user. This is the context of the present investigation, which focuses on the change of immersive journalism over the last five years. To this end, 1713 pieces available on the Samsung VR platform are analysed. The results reveal that there have been some changes in terms of production; however, in narrative terms, when it comes to reporting reality, the only evident change has been the way in which the functions of immersive storytelling elements have been updated.