Author: Kashish
Abstract
This paper critically examines virtual reality journalism and immersive storytelling through the intersecting theoretical lenses of presence theory, embodied cognition, narrative transportation, and media ethics. Drawing on Slater’s (2009) foundational distinction between Place Illusion and Plausibility Illusion, de la Pena et al.’s (2010) pioneering articulation of immersive journalism, and Green and Brock’s (2000) narrative transportation theory, the study analyzes the psychological mechanisms, empirical evidence, ethical tensions, and sustainability challenges characterizing VR journalism. The paper synthesizes findings from experimental comparisons of immersive and traditional news formats, including Perez-Seijo et al. (2023) and Bujic et al. (2024), and systematic reviews including Hernandez-Rodriguez and Garcia-Perdomo’s (2024) analysis of 69 studies and Karaduman et al.’s (2024) bibliometric review of 955 publications. The analysis reveals that VR journalism enhances emotional engagement and place illusion but does not consistently improve information retention or contextual understanding, that the empathy hypothesis receives only partial empirical support with emotional but not cognitive empathy improvements, and that adoption has stalled due to high production costs, limited audience access, and competition from short-form video. The paper examines ethical challenges including manipulation potential, voyeurism concerns, and informed consent complexities, and evaluates alternative immersive formats including augmented reality, spatial audio, and hybrid approaches.
Keywords: virtual reality journalism, immersive storytelling, presence theory, empathy, digital ethics, 360-degree video, embodied cognition, journalistic representation, augmented reality, spatial audio.
