There has been limited adoption of Immersive Journalism (IJ) by the audience; simultaneously, the audience’s perspective is rarely considered in the production and research of IJ. At this point, however, it is crucial to incorporate an audience perspective to identify potentially unintended effects of IJ and improve on the innovation of IJ. This study investigates the audience’s experience and evaluation of IJ by qualitatively analyzing their thoughts after viewing two IJ cases. Our results indicate that the audience may pick up on intended effects, such as a sense of presence and an intense emotional experience, but some also express unease towards these effects. Furthermore, the audience struggles to comprehend this study’s two immersive journalistic cases as part of the journalistic genre. These findings provide insight into the gap between the initial hype and the current reality of IJ and provide the basis for propositions for future IJ productions.
MULTIFILE
Following the Sector Protocol for Quality Assurance for Practice-Based.Contributors Academy for AI, Games and Media:Mata Haggis Burridge (prof. EG), Qiqi Zhou, Hillevi Boerboom, Maria Pafi (postdoc, WuR), Alexander van Buggenum, Ella Betts, Wilma Franchimon (dir. AGM), Nick van Apeldoorn (Coord.Digireal), Harald Warmelink (Coord. Cradle & MSP Challenge), Magali Patrocínio Gonçalves, Ard Bonewald (MT Games), Marin Hekman, Marie Lhuissier, Carlos Santos (CTO Cradle), Jeremiah van Oosten (MT, games), Kevin Hutchinson, Frank Peters (MT ADS&AI), Bram Heijligers, Joey Relouw, Marnix van Gisbergen (Prof. DMC), Shima Rezaei Rashnoodi (Coord. DMC), Phil de Groot, Igor Mayer (prof. SG), Niels Voskens, Fabio Ferreira da Costa Campos, Tuki Clavero, Jens Hagen, Wilco Boode, Natalia Harazhanka-Pietjouw (PPC), Jacopo Fabrini & Silke Hassreiter.
This project develops a European network for transdisciplinary innovation in artistic engagement as a catalyst for societal transformation, focusing on immersive art. It responds to the professionals in the field’s call for research into immersive art’s unique capacity to ‘move’ people through its multisensory, technosocial qualities towards collective change. The project brings together experts leading state-of-the-art research and practice in related fields with an aim to develop trajectories for artistic, methodological, and conceptual innovation for societal transformation. The nascent field of immersive art, including its potential impact on society, has been identified as a priority research area on all local-to-EU levels, but often suffers from the common (mis)perception as being technological spectacle prioritising entertainment values. Many practitioners create immersive art to enable novel forms of creative engagement to address societal issues and enact change, but have difficulty gaining recognition and support for this endeavour. A critical challenge is the lack of knowledge about how their predominantly sensuous and aesthetic experience actually lead to collective change, which remains unrecognised in the current systems of impact evaluation predicated on quantitative analysis. Recent psychological insights on awe as a profoundly transformative emotion signals a possibility to address this challenge, offering a new way to make sense of the transformational effect of directly interacting with such affective qualities of immersive art. In parallel, there is a renewed interest in the practice of cultural mediation, which brings together different stakeholders to facilitate negotiation towards collective change in diverse domains of civic life, often through creative engagements. Our project forms strategic grounds for transdisciplinary research at the intersection between these two developments. We bring together experts in immersive art, psychology, cultural mediation, digital humanities, and design across Europe to explore: How can awe-experiences be enacted in immersive art and be extended towards societal transformation?
Craft your own audience: How can a technology-driven company use online gaming communities, like Minecraft, to reach and engage a young audience? This project creates a context in which reality is simulated, by having students work together for a real client in an international context. In this project we explore innovative ways in which Samsung can engage younger audiences through Minecraft, the world's best-selling game with almost 140 million monthly players (2023). This project is focused on on educating, researching and developing playable prototypes within Minecraft that demonstrate how online gaming communities can be used to connect technology companies with a new generation of users. Societal issueInclusion of different ages around technology literacy and education (21st century skills).Benefit to societyGlobal inclusive community around education and R&D, higher cultural awareness.Collaborative partnersManchester Metropolitan University; Samsung Benelux.
The IMPULS-2020 project DIGIREAL (BUas, 2021) aims to significantly strengthen BUAS’ Research and Development (R&D) on Digital Realities for the benefit of innovation in our sectoral industries. The project will furthermore help BUas to position itself in the emerging innovation ecosystems on Human Interaction, AI and Interactive Technologies. The pandemic has had a tremendous negative impact on BUas industrial sectors of research: Tourism, Leisure and Events, Hospitality and Facility, Built Environment and Logistics. Our partner industries are in great need of innovative responses to the crises. Data, AI combined with Interactive and Immersive Technologies (Games, VR/AR) can provide a partial solution, in line with the key-enabling technologies of the Smart Industry agenda. DIGIREAL builds upon our well-established expertise and capacity in entertainment and serious games and digital media (VR/AR). It furthermore strengthens our initial plans to venture into Data and Applied AI. Digital Realities offer great opportunities for sectoral industry research and innovation, such as experience measurement in Leisure and Hospitality, data-driven decision-making for (sustainable) tourism, geo-data simulations for Logistics and Digital Twins for Spatial Planning. Although BUas already has successful R&D projects in these areas, the synergy can and should significantly be improved. We propose a coherent one-year Impuls funded package to develop (in 2021): 1. A multi-year R&D program on Digital Realities, that leads to, 2. Strategic R&D proposals, in particular a SPRONG/sleuteltechnologie proposal; 3. Partnerships in the regional and national innovation ecosystem, in particular Mind Labs and Data Development Lab (DDL); 4. A shared Digital Realities Lab infrastructure, in particular hardware/software/peopleware for Augmented and Mixed Reality; 5. Leadership, support and operational capacity to achieve and support the above. The proposal presents a work program and management structure, with external partners in an advisory role.
