Students experiment with immersive journalism

By Shelly Cone, journalism senior

Journalism professors Patrick Howe and Brady Teufel introduced students this year to tools for using immersive journalism to tell stories. This form of journalism, also known as virtual reality journalism, allows a reporter to bring the audience into the story by providing audio and 360-degree visuals.

“We’re just totally geeking out on this right now,” Howe said about the possible implications for immersive journalism.

Mustang News Editor-in-Chief Kayla Missman with
the six-camera V.R. device mounted on a flexible tripod.

Essentially, a reporter uses multiple cameras to record a story in 360 degrees. The result is viewed through a headset that blocks out surrounding sights so viewers can experience the scenes as if they were there in person. By tilting their heads left, right, up or down, they can actually see a total scene.

Google recently introduced inexpensive cardboard goggles for viewing virtual reality on smart phone screens. This same technology is being used by The New York Times and others to bring virtual reality to the audience for news.

Howe and Teufel first learned about the technology at the Online News Association annual convention in Los Angeles last September. On the car ride home, they discussed the many ways journalism students could put it to use

The hardest part about this type of storytelling is how to actually record the video. Howe said a reporter can film in 360 degrees by arranging six GoPro cameras together. Using the 3D printer at the campus Innovation Sandbox, Howe and his team created a device to cradle each of the six GoPros—which were borrowed from staff and other campus departments. They tested the system out on the big Blue-Green rivalry soccer match between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara to see if they could effectively give audiences a feel for what it was like to be there. The videos were then added to an application that stitches recordings together and presents them as one seamless video.

Mustang News Editor-in-Chief and journalism senior Kayla Missman operated the device during the game and the after-game celebration. Even though there were a few mishaps, such as one of the cameras dying during the filming, which  created a black space on the ultimate video, overall it was a successful first venture, she said.

“It’s absolutely the way journalism is going to be heading,” Missman said. “It’s an incredible storytelling technique really. There’s nothing like it.”

Howe said the technology doesn’t work for every type of story, but for stories that lend themselves to high visual or emotional appeal, in which bringing the audience into the story can facilitate a better understanding of a topic, immersive storytelling is an effective tool to add another dimension to the story.