University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Inventing immersive journalism: embodiment, realism and presence in nonfiction

(USC Thesis Other)

Inventing immersive journalism: embodiment, realism and presence in nonfiction

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Inventing Immersive Journalism:
Embodiment, Realism and Presence in
Nonfiction
By Nonny de la Peña
A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE
SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY (CINEMATIC ARTS (MEDIA ARTS AND
PRACTICES)) DECEMBER 2019

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction p. 3

Chapter One: Embodied Edits and Spatial Narrative p. 9

Chapter Two: Embodied Digital Rhetoric p. 20

Chapter Three: Embodiment and Behavioral Realism: Challenging the Notion of the
Uncanny Valley p. 46

Chapter Four: Embodiment, Space, and Place p. 70

Chapter Five: Physical World News in Virtual Spaces: Representation and
Embodiment in Immersive Nonfiction p. 84

Conclusion p. 92

Appendices: p. 98

Appendix One: Research Findings and Embodiment: Across the
Line, Greenland Melting, After Solitary p. 99

Appendix Two: Victoria And Albert Museum Guestbook Comments
On Project Syria, Collected Over Five Days p. 188

Appendix Three: Text Box Responses on How Users Dealt with Sexual
Harassment in Second Life p. 243

Appendix Four: Creating Virtual Reality Journalism: A Guide for Best
Practices p. 250

Bibliography p. 289

3
INTRODUCTION
I coined the term immersive journalism in 2007 to describe my idea for a potentially
powerful new way to create journalism using immersive technologies. The concept offers a form
of news production that allows for first person experience of the events or situations described in
news reports and documentary film. Using three-dimensional imagery, spatial sound and the
ability for the user to move through space, immersive journalism allows the audience a sense of
"being there,” offering an opportunity to personally engage with a story. By accessing a virtual
version of the location where the story is occurring as a witness/participant, or by experiencing
the perspective of a character depicted in the news story, the idea is to offer the audience access
to the sights and sounds, and even the feelings and emotions, which accompany the news.
The immersive journalism project unofficially with Gone Gitmo, the virtual recreation of
Guantánamo Bay prison in Second Life created in collaboration with digital artist Peggy Weil.
Funded by the MacArthur Foundation and developed at the Bay Area Video Coalition, the piece
was based on a section about the prison in my 2003 documentary, Unconstitutional, which tried
to offer an accessible, albeit virtual version of a place off limits to most citizens and press. After
witnessing the success of Gone Gitmo, it became clear that virtual reality production provided an
excellent technological medium to tell nonfiction stories. I registered the URL
ImmersiveJournalism.com and began to conceive of other reporting using a similar starting point
– how could the whole body be considered in the construction of the nonfiction narrative? Can
the audience be centered inside the story and allowed the power to direct their own view? I also
became interested in some of the theory surrounding this new form of production: Could
phenomenological studies inform design? Where would some understanding of media studies
help the project? How should effectiveness of the medium be analyzed?

4
My second piece utilizing the concept of immersive journalism was Ipsress, produced at
the University of Barcelona’s Event Lab, under the direction of Mel Slater and Maria Sanchez
Vives. It relied heavily on additional material I had gathered for Unconstitutional, specifically
Freedom of Information Act reports describing the way prisoners were being treated at
Guantánamo Bay prison. Ipsress focused on what was being called a “stress position,” a term
that seemed to minimize the tortuous interrogation conditions to which those prisoners were
being subjected. The ensuing paper that describes the construction of Ipsress and the reactions to
experinence, “Immersive Journalism: Immersive Virtual Reality for the First-Person Experience
of the News,” was published in 2010 and remains, as of the writing of this dissertation in the
Spring of 2019, the second most downloaded paper in the history of the journal Presence.
Recently, I was asked what motivated me to make my third piece, Hunger in Los
Angeles, which was the first virtual reality exhibit shown at the Sundance Film Festival and
premiered in 2012. Was I really driven by empathy? While there is a much larger and more
nuanced discussion on virtual reality and the connection to the viewer, my answer to that
question was a strong “yes.” Food banks were overwhelmed and people were going hungry in
the United States, but their plight was almost entirely invisible. My goal of the project was to
create an empathic and visceral understanding of that problem and to stir an appropriate
response. This was not a newly discovered motivation, however naïve at times it can seem.
For example, in 2003, I was working on a documentary about civil liberties violations in
America directly after 9/11. The film portrays the excessive and shocking abuses endured by
Muslims in the United States, including the story of a former Syrian pilot who had sought
political refuge and was living in the Seattle area for more than a decade. A late night arrest
swept up those in his family not born in the United States, including his wife and his teenage

5
daughter who had been raised in the United States since she was a toddler. The mother, in tears,
recalled not being allowed to put on her hijab when she was snatched from her bed and as she
wept she declared, “my religion is so beautiful.”
I am secular myself and it is unimaginable that I will find a faith that makes sense for me
personally. Yet the beauty of her expression was deeply moving and it further motivated me to
defend her and what I believed to be a patriotic effort – to fight for a U.S. constitution that
describes religious freedom as a basic right. Using film, I hoped to allow her to convey to an
audience that same inspiration. In order to do that, I needed to acquire images that reflected her
passion.
I approached the communications director at a local mosque in Culver City, California to
request filming inside. In order to allay his fears that I was simply adding to the negative
conversation dominating America about Muslims, I offered that he come to my edit suite (which
I had moved to my garage at the time because I was nursing a young infant) and watch the scene
we had just finished cutting about the Syrian family’s arrest and imprisonment. (They were not
released until many months later, even though the FBI had cleared them within days.) After he
watched the section that included the wife’s defense of her religion, he turned to me and through
tears, disbelief and angst, repeated over and over, “WHY are you doing this? WHY are you
doing this?” I did not know what to say. Maybe the word “bridge” would have been the right
answer.
Now that I work in the dimensional space of virtual reality, my focus often tends to be
about compassion and connection from a nongaming perspective. I have especially focused on
volumetric, “room scale,” virtual reality that allows the audience member to fully walk or move
around, in contrast to 360 video, which only allows the viewer to gaze in all directions. There is

6
a tangible impact from being able to feel a story through the whole body and not just through the
gaze: Standing on a market street in Aleppo, Syria when a bomb goes off, you understand the
plight of Syrian refugees. Being in the room with two sisters as they try, unsuccessfully, to
protect a third sibling from an ex-boyfriend’s fatal attack, you feel the true horror of domestic
violence and guns. Watching the brutal beating of a handcuffed immigrant with your own eyes,
you question U.S. Border patrol ‘Use of Force’ protocols.
We have been able to document exactly how these pieces can play a constructive role.
For example, Across The Line, uses actual material to force the audience to experience the kind
of vitriol that gets yelled at young women trying to enter health clinics. An independent study
was conducted among individuals who generally held anti-abortion views who were shown the
piece
1
. Surprisingly, the results found that they thought anti-abortion activists were the
producers. More importantly, they reacted extremely negatively to the approach they witnessed
firsthand: Even if they disagreed with the procedure of abortion, they agreed that young women
should not be treated with such ugly aggression. The result was better than I could have
imagined.
Still, I would like to emphasize that it is a tall order to expect artists to act as a conduit for
change. I have heard from colleagues that they just want to make without that expectation. This
is especially true for women and artists of color who already struggle with getting access to the
resources necessary to create. But the palette can provoke and I, for one, paint that way. I
remain committed to the belief that compassion is best outside a vacuum – if we come closer to
each other’s stories, we can find a reconciliation of differences and maybe a small place of

1
From January through April 2016, researchers from the Sea Change Program, an organization dedicated to
transforming the culture of stigma around abortion, surveyed 284 viewers and intended viewers of Across the Line

7
peace.
2

The reception to the concept of immersive journalism has been mixed, and early on it
often elicited strong negative responses. Rather than allowing those responses to shut down the
project, it served to motivate me to further explore narrative possibilities in virtual reality. The
following chapters represent that investigation over the past ten years. It is an interdisciplinary
approach, one which interweaves research on game design, human computer interface research,
film theory, phenomenology as well as practical lab experimentation and survey analysis.
While this sweeping approach may seem to lack focus, the fact that I have been
pioneering my own field has meant that the inquiry needed to be open to discovery. To take a
phenomenological approach to storytelling in virtual reality holds equal relevance to gleaning
whether the information in a news piece can be understood in an embodied medium. However, a
recurring theme acts as the connecting thread: how and where to situate the body and its
experience within and throughout the virtual reality experience.
These chapters are also a reflection of the evolution of my thinking on immersive
journalism. It starts with some on my earliest ideas and then follows my practice as it begins to
hone in more specifically on embodiment and virtual reality. Some of the chapters include
material that was ultimately published, but a considerable amount of what is written here has
never been printed for public consumption. This dissertation acts as a compendium of my
writing about the work I have created over the past ten years, the reactions to those experiences
based on studies I have conducted that include statistical analysis and self-reported experience,

2
This response to the inquiry about empathy and Hunger in Los Angeles was ultimately published in the
book Art of Peace (2018) in answer to the question: “In your opinion could or should art play a constructive role in
resolving conflicts? Could or should art help in building bridges of understanding among conflicting views? How?”

8
and finally, what third-party researchers have discovered studying using in-depth tools and
techniques.

9
CHAPTER ONE: EMBODIED EDITS AND SPATIAL NARRATIVE
Gone Gitmo, the virtual version of Guantánamo Prison created in 2007 using the online
environment of Second Life (SL), was an endeavor undertaken with digital artist Peggy Weil.
Almost immediately after we produced the project, we began to explore some of the potential
conceptual ideas that the project inspired. One was the idea of “immersive journalism,” an idea
that came out of my considerations on how to use technology to make journalism visceral and
immediate, based on my extensive career as a journalist. Additionally, at the Advances in
Computer Entertainment conference in Yokohama, Japan, in 2008, Weil and I introduced the
term “embodied edit,” which was coined by Weil, and we explored the application of “spatial
narrative,”
3
an existent idea which is discussed further in this chapter. Both became crucial
concepts for me for how to move the embodied viewer through the timeline of a virtual story and
would inform all of my future work in virtual reality. Much of the following comes from the
paper Weil and I wrote for the Advances in Computer Entertainment conference, and is
significant for its enduring framework on how to approach immersive journalism production.

The Gone Gitmo project was conceived in response to a call for proposals from Bay Area
Video Coalition’s (BAVC) New Media Producers Workshop in 2007. The MacArthur
Foundation-sponsored initiative offered a week-long workshop for a group of media makers
known for our experience in social issue media production. The brief for the workshop specified
that “existing significant documentary projects” should be translated into digital media with the
goal of jumpstarting new thinking related to emerging forms of storytelling. I partnered with
digital media artist and researcher, Peggy Weil, with a proposal to adapt my 2004 feature-length
documentary film, Unconstitutional, to the virtual environment.
We were motivated as much by the material as by the formal challenges of the project.
Unconstitutional describes the conditions, both material and legal, of detainees in Guantánamo
Bay Prison. The project evolved into a true collaboration, but our initial motivations arose from

3
At this point, the notion of “spatial narrative” had already gained a lot of traction. “That games are spatial, a
notion introduced by Murray (1997), as well as the author (1997), and others (Jenkins 1998; Nitsche and
Thomas 2003; Fullerton, Morie, and Pearce 2007), is now generally accepted as a foregone conclusion.
Aarseth plumbs the depths of space in his essay on the topic (2000), and an entire volume has since been
devoted to numerous essays on the subject (von Borries, Walz, and Böttger 2007),” says Celia Pearce in her
2007 paper “Spatial Literacy: Reading (and Writing) Game Space.”

10
our initial roles: as a journalist, I was motivated to re-present the content in a manner that would
intensify the viewer experience. Weil was motivated by the formal challenges of integrating
cinema into the digital landscape. Both of us were interested in narrative delivered spatially to an
avatar audience as informed by our ongoing research into the viewer’s identification with their
avatar.
Our decision to use a virtual environment to portray a U.S. prison camp came about
because we felt that the inaccessible nature of the “real” location justified an accessible but
virtual installation. While our goals were always to intensify the experience, we chose not to
create an exact duplicate of the locale but rather to raise awareness and engage the viewer in the
issues pertinent to our subject. Sensitive to the limits of virtual representation of physicality but
confronted with the issue of conveying “harsh interrogation techniques” and long imprisonment,
we chose to create a space to contemplate these practices, rather than replicate them; in short, we
elected to build a contemplation chamber, not a torture chamber. In that space, we allowed guests
to read from a collection of 22 poems by 17 Guantanamo detainees published by Marc Falkoff in
2007 titled Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak; visitors also could interact with
RSS feeds of news about Guantanamo; listen to a recording from the New York Public Theatre’s
nonprofit Joe’s Pub reading of an interrogation; and view more of the film Unconstitutional. We
also integrated documentary footage to evoke an empathic experience inside and around our
virtual Camp X-Ray, a digital recreation of the real environment, which is further delineated
below.
Since the Department of Defense introduced SimNet
4
, an early real-time training
simulator that used virtual tanks, helicopters and airplanes in distributed virtual combat scenarios

4
Fred Hapgood’s 1997 Wired article does an excellent job of describing the history of SimNet;
https://www.wired.com/1997/04/ff-simnet/

11
in the late 1980s, Gee (2005) notes that virtual worlds have been utilized to “externalize some of
the most fundamental features of how human beings orientate themselves in and to the real
world.” As Dede (1996) also pointed out in virtual reality’s nascent years, the ability of users to
apply abstract knowledge can be enhanced when they are situated in an authentic virtual context.
Using these ideas as a backdrop, Weil and I elected to explore the potential of avatar experience
while viewing a virtual “authentic” environment, validated with the insertion of documentary
footage and enhanced using cinematic techniques.
Our setting, a prison on the island of Cuba under the jurisdiction of the U.S. military, is
largely off limits. As filmmakers and artists, the question became not just how we could best tell
the story of Guantánamo Bay Prison, but also how would we effectively “transport” our viewers
there. We elected to build an accessible, albeit virtual, installation on Second Life (SL), a 3D
virtual world created by Linden Lab and launched in 2003. We wanted the installation to
integrate documentary video to validate our 3D Computer Graphic Imagery (CGI) environment,
since recreating a real world space and calling it journalistically correct was a novel idea. We
also decided to experiment with several techniques designed to acknowledge the unique
experience of avatar-mediated viewing of cinema – that is, the ability of the virtual character to
act as the camera viewpoint.
While Hollywood has long solved the problem of inaccessibility with elaborate sets and
visual effects, we found the Virtual Environment (VE) presents new opportunities for immersive
storytelling. Restrictions on location are eliminated and avatar experience in a virtual
environment can be a deeply emotional and potentially visceral. In fact, it seems that we are
hardwired to adopt representations of ourselves as real (Lenggenhager, et al, 2007; Ehrsson,

12
2007). This connection to the virtual body, to what we see rather than where we are, adds another
dimension to how we determine “self.”
The Gone Gitmo experience begins with a new form of cinematic scripted event: the
avatar is offered a HUD (heads up display) allowing the filmmakers to control both her vision
and position. The brief segment is a powerful first person experience: the shaky black screen
indicates you are hooded, the audio indicates that your C-17 transport plane is landing and you
are being dragged, against your will, to some unknown destination. When the full environment
reappears, it is a third person view of your avatar kneeling, as if shackled in a cage in Camp X-
Ray.

A Triptych of the Embodied Edit

The virtual “black hood” was created from video in which the camera lens was covered
with black fabric that allowed only flickers of light to filter through and was intended to play as

13
the POV of a hooded individual. Soldiers’ voices, detainees’ cries and jet noises were later added
as the soundtrack. Once the video began, it would fill the entire screen of a participant’s
computer, taking away control, and when it finished – an equivalent of the hood being
“removed” – the individual would then find s/he had been transported from the plane to the
interior of a virtual replica of the notorious Camp X-Ray cage. We approached this segment as
conventional filmmakers; the hooded sequence was derived by stretching black cloth over a
video camera shot looking down on pavement; the audio was mixed in a conventional sound
studio and married to the video in editing. The experience, however, is anything but
conventional. This momentary loss of control, the loss of agency, in concert with the disturbing
nature of the material, intends to evoke a powerful emotional response in the viewer. This is not
to be confused with the “cut scene” in gameplay in which the action of the game is interrupted by
passive viewing to further the game narrative. In contrast, the scripted avatar event, while
denying agency to the avatar, is an active experience due to the direct action on the viewer’s
surrogate body.

The Embodied Edit
The scripted avatar event allows the filmmakers to integrate cinematic techniques within
the virtual environment, triggered by location or event and personalized for the individual
viewer. The triggering mechanism can be spatially or viewer dependent, putting greater control
into the hands of the filmmakers. Scripted cinematic avatar events introduce a new form of edit
we termed the “embodied edit.” The ability to teleport in the VE is taken for granted; the
embodied edit exploits the teleport, redefining it as a semantic link in a narrative. Embodied edits
describe the experience of being abruptly transported, teleported, from one (virtual) location to

14
another under the control of the content creator. It allows for adherence to a timeline and for a
coherent narrative to unfold through environment change where specific elements are triggered
to complete the story elements.
In the experience described above, the avatar makes the transition from third person, the
customary point of view (POV) in Second Life, to an enforced first person POV. The first person
experience is uncharacteristically (for first person game worlds) passive, requiring the avatar to
surrender to our vision for the duration of the clip. Finally, upon return to the third person view,
the avatar’s body is not only confined in a cage, but shackled in an unnatural, unfamiliar
position. However unusual in delivery, this abrupt transition is rooted in the cinematic edit; the
filmmakers have advanced the story by forcefully transporting the viewer as avatar from one
place to another. It is a cut, and like all cinematic cuts, can prove essential to the art of
storytelling in the virtual environment.

Integration of cinema into CGI landscape
The unique nature of our subject matter, a restricted military zone with limited visual
representation, made us sensitive to the question of accuracy in our portrayal. Our goal was not
to replicate the site, but to evoke an experience, in order to engage our viewers in the ongoing
situation. Thus, a critical component of the experience is to augment the 3D computer graphics
with video. The film clips serve to authenticate our depiction, and as moving images rather than
stills, they serve to immerse the viewer in a cinematic experience.
We built a forbidding structure with cement cages ringed with barbed and razor wire but
did not ask the viewer to trust our CGI. Instead, clips of Defense Department film footage of
detainees in Camp X-Ray, which had been released shortly after Guantánamo Prison was opened

15
in 2002, were strategically placed throughout the site to validate our environment. We soon
realized that the integration of documentary imagery could do more than confirm our
representation of the camp; it was also a powerful tool for us to lead the viewer through multiple
narrative experiences. We experimented with placement and progression, investigating the
potential of authoring a spatial narrative within this type of environment.
Upon arrival in the cage, the avatar, shackled and kneeling, is told to put on an orange
jump suit. Only then is she free to get up and explore her surroundings. Immediately upon
opening the door to the cage, the avatar is confronted by a film clip of a gaunt detainee in similar
orange garb being dragged by guards past cages. Once outside of the cellblock, movement and
location trigger several other film clips. We experimented with several different orientations:
oblique, a horizontal image on the “ground,” and a large, looming image. The first, an oblique
image positioned in a cellblock in the distance, like the first image, serves to corroborate the
general scene. As the avatar walks between the cages, another clip appears on the ground of a
detainee walking between cages. This evokes a strangely effective “mirror” effect and is more
directly confrontational. By blocking the path, it demands attention and contemplation from the
viewer. The imagery exerts pressure to consider the realities of confinement on the otherwise
free avatar.

16

Avatar viewing a clip of a detainee in the actual prison

Avatar viewing narrative clip from the documentary Unconstitutional

At the end of the walkway we constructed a large screen to view interviews from my film,
Unconstitutional. The enormous projection of detainee Mozaam Begg’s father’s face, filled with
emotion as he reads from his son’s letters, is a compelling example of a new place for cinema:
instead of the dark, sequestered theaters of the real world, here is the drive-in of the virtual
world: a large “outdoor” place to gather and watch a communal screen. The power of a
detainee’s father’s lament is amplified when this image is scaled relative to the avatar rather than
the computer screen. This integration of documented versus virtual reality and the interplay of

17
scale and avatar has formal and aesthetic implications that have yet to be fully explored: Does
the connection to one’s personal avatar mean watching your avatar viewing a close-up have the
same resonance as watching a close-up on the cinematic screen? And what does size and scale
mean for the viewer in the virtual environment?
5
Also, does the virtual/communal experience of
the space help create a shared connection to the viewed material?
There are a number of studies on the connection between the sense of one’s physical
body to the virtual one. For example, Lenggenhager, B., et al. (2007) placed subjects into video
display goggles that showed a virtual rendering of their bodies in front of them and they were
stroked on the back at the same time as they saw their virtual body being stroked. Subjects
reported that the sensation made them feel “as if the virtual body was their own body.” The video
display was then turned off so it now acted like a blindfold, and subjects who had been moved
from their original spot were asked to return to where they had been standing. They invariably
moved closer to where they had perceived their virtual selves rather than where they had actually
been standing.
In another experiment, subjects saw their own backs through stereoscopic video display
goggles, making them feel as if they were sitting behind themselves (Ehrsson, 2007). When their
chests were touched with a plastic rod at the same time as the rod “stroked” the area of their
virtual chest, subjects felt the sensation as if their bodies were now located at their viewpoint.
This was despite the fact that their real body was in plain view. When a researcher brought a
hammer down toward the virtual body, subjects registered a threat that was measured both
through skin conductance electrodes and self-reports of feeling anxiety. In their minds, they now

5
I am currently exploring how to remake in virtual reality the Carl Theodor Dreyer film The Passion of Joan of Arc
and am explicitly interested in playing with scale, such as making the judges larger than life so that the viewer feels
as much as sees the power of judgement.

18
occupied the space behind their bodies based on their perspective rather than their actual location
in space.
These studies underscore the importance of our perception about what is happening to
our physical representation, as Lenggenhager’s aptly named research suggests – video ergo sum,
translated from Latin as “I see therefore I am.” They offer some thoughts on why an avatar
becomes relevant so rapidly and why users become invested in the experiences of their particular
avatar. Also, as Nowak and Rauh (2005) point out, “The virtual body influences social
judgment,” perhaps helping explain why unexpectedly viewing one’s avatar in a “bound”
position locked within a cage can make a narrative more compelling.

Spatial Narrative
The formal aspects of spatial narrative, especially as applied to 3D computer
environments and games, have been discussed broadly by researchers, including Manovich
(2001) and Murray (1997). As Manovich notes, the use of spatial narrative “played a prominent
role in European visual culture for centuries” (2001). Kelliher, Mazalek and Davenport (2003)
also point out a similar tradition in ancient Chinese landscape paintings and Japanese scrolls. All
note the privileging of linear narrative in traditional cinema and the promise and examples of
computer games and environments to resurrect the practice of spatial narrative via navigable 3D
CGI space.
In Second Life, avatar-mediated spatial narrative has taken unique forms. “The Salt
Satyagraha Online: Gandhi’s March to Dandi in Second Life” (2008), a work by media artist
Joseph DeLappe, flowed between the real and virtual worlds. DeLappe spent 22 days and 240
miles on a treadmill to control his Ghandi-like avatar and walked across Second Life in a re-

19
enactment of Mahatma Ghandi’s seminal 1930s protest against the British Salt Act of 1882.
DeLappe’s avatar self in SL was displayed via video projection next to his physical self on the
treadmill at the Eyebeam gallery in New York, March 12-April 6, and he further delineated his
responses to the project in frequent blog posts. The video of his journey within the virtual world
and the real world was interwoven to make a final film, but his project shares with Gone Gitmo a
desire to investigate the intersections of bodies, avatars and embodied perception.
6

Conclusion
We were encouraged that the current cinematic embeddings at Gone Gitmo elicited
powerful reaction (Sancton, 2008; Schmidt, 2007; Ananthaswamy, 2007;) and one “re-mix”
(DeLappe, 2008). Our investigation and work on this project continues beyond the techniques
described above; we have recently begun to experiment with spheres and textures to integrate
immersive video textures. A video texture, applied to an object and defined as “phantom,” allows
avatars to pass through unimpeded and actually enter the video. These experiments suggest a
new series of structures: personalized, immersive viewing spaces.

6
DeLappe documents his experience in our project, explaining the act of “straining to view what is going on
through the sim-provided black hood,” and emerging “in a supplicant position inside one of the kennel-like holding
areas.” Delappe called Gone Gitmo a “chilling and sobering experience” (DeLappe, 2008).

20
CHAPTER TWO: EMBODIED DIGITAL RHETORIC

Journalism has long considered what makes a compelling story, and how to deftly convey
nonfiction information. But what does it mean to put the entire person inside that story? How
does that person perceive the attempt to illustrate a real story? The following chapter considers
the idea of rhetoric as a persuasive argument involving not just a digital framework, but one that
includes the body.
I also introduce the concept of “duality of presence,” which is the idea that we can feel
like we are in two places at once. This sensation is perhaps what makes listening, reading, or
watching a story so compelling; we can imagine being there. With VR goggles on, that sensation
becomes intense and nearly literal. I have witnessed many viewers gasp in the first seconds that
they put on the headset – they feel transported to the location they now see and hear around
them. As Lenggenhager (2007) says, “Video ergo sum.” However, I have also been told many,
many times, “I felt like I was THERE and that I was HERE at the same time.” No one believes
they have left the space their body is actually standing in, but they connect deeply to the space
they see and feel themselves to be.
Many of the ideas in this chapter were originally written in 2013 and a version of it was
published in Digital Rhetoric and Global Literacies: Communication Modes and Digital
Practices in the Networked World, June 2014, although additional material was added for this
dissertation chapter.

“Where does the body end and the mind begin?” young Quastro
asked, amid recurring attempts to fine-tune the differences between real and
virtual violence. “Is not the mind a part of the body?” “In MOO, the body IS
the mind,” offered HerkieCosmo gamely, and not at all implausibly,
demonstrating the ease with which very knotty metaphysical conundrums
come undone in VR.
“A Rape in Cyberspace,” Dibbell, 1993, pg. 10

I have a memory of complete immersion: I was in fourth grade and, as often occurred, I
had completed the assignment before my classmates. While I waited for the other children to
finish, I sat on top of my book and secretly read by moving my legs aside to reveal the pages.
Turning a page was slightly problematic and usually led to discovery if my teacher, Mrs. Wolfe,
hadn’t already noticed that I had stopped paying attention. That kind of getting in trouble was
worth it, however, especially if the book was good and the alternative was boredom.
That year I was particularly fond of a novel called Mountain Pony, which I had picked up
with my family at a thrift store. It didn’t matter that I had probably already read it half a dozen

21
times. At the moment when the protagonist and his pony are trying to cross a treacherous
mountainside in the pouring rain, I was always transported deeply into the story. The sense of my
physical body would disappear. While I remember little else from that year, when the annoyed
Mrs. Wolfe snarled at me to hand over my book, the sensation of looking up to see sunshine
pouring through the Southern California schoolroom windows instead of gnashing thunder
clouds spewing crazy lightening was completely disorienting. Where was I again? Oh, yes, here.
And in trouble.
Several decades later in 2007, a female-gendered avatar in the online virtual world of
Second Life, threatened to hit me with a baseball bat. Second Life, which was launched in 2003
and renamed Sansar in 2017, allowed users to customize the look of their avatars as digital
representations of themselves and offered numerous social spaces for those avatars to virtually
gather. In this instance, the avatar was completely green, wearing ice skates and dressed in an
outfit resembling a jumpsuit, with long sharp points emerging from her clothes. Of course she
couldn’t really hit or hurt me, but as she slapped her hand with a virtual bat and expressed her
anger over my use of Second Life, I felt extremely intimidated.
Her male-gendered avatar partner had just gone through the “experience” associated with
Gone Gitmo, a digital recreation of Guantànamo Bay prison I built with artist Peggy Weil that is
described in detail in Chapter One. The site was designed so that after entering a model of a C-17
transport plane, and then touching an orange panel, one’s avatar would be bound in white straps
and a “black hood” would drop over the “vision” of the now disabled avatar. The experience was
carefully constructed using source material, including photographs leaked by soldiers, which
revealed how detainees were transported to the prison. Inside the cage, the body of the avatar

22
appeared bound in shackles, a startling feeling for participants, albeit the restraints were merely
visual and the avatar could actually immediately move about freely.
The green bat-wielding avatar was put on the defensive after seeing her companion jailed
in the virtual X-Ray cage even though he quickly stood up and walked around. As she began to
dialogue, I directed her to the embedded videos depicting treatment of detainees at the prison
camp. (Initially released by the US Department of Defense, these videos were quickly retracted
due to international outcry over the inhumane conditions they revealed.) However, the images
did nothing to lessen her outrage focused at me. The more she felt the site “defended” the
detainees, the angrier she became.
Clearly, the experience of the virtual construct communicated something inherently
upsetting to her. Equally important, the slapping of the baseball bat felt physically threatening to
me, despite the fact that I was only viewing a three-inch digital representation of myself,
controlled and mediated through a plastic keyboard. We shared this deep connection to our
digital selves even as the evocative content, based on a news story with a parallel in the physical
world, placed us in contrary positions.
Cognitive science philosopher Andy Clark (2003) uses the term soft selves [italics mine]
to describe the way we fluidly adopt and integrate with technologies, from pencil to sophisticated
prostheses, which enhance or augment our bodies (p. 141). “There is no self, if by self we mean
some central cognitive essence that makes me who and what I am. In its place there is just the
‘soft self’: a rough-and-tumble, control sharing coalition of processes – some neural, some
bodily, some technological– and an ongoing drive to tell a story, to paint a picture in which ‘I’
am the central player” (p. 138). He continues, “To face up to our true nature (soft selves,
distributed decentralized coalitions) is to recognize the inextricable intimacy of self, mind, and

23
world” (p. 13). For Clark, the tool – hammer, book, post-it note, mobile phone – merges with the
self in a way that challenges the idea that there is a rigid distinction between the material world
and the mind and body.
In this Second Life encounter, however, the augmentation was not so much about
utilizing a tool until it became a natural extension of the self, but rather using the tool to carry
ourselves into the virtual environment. The certain resonance of who we were, especially given
that we felt defined by a political position we occupied in our real lives, echoed loudly. The
confrontation underscored how loosely circumscribed a physical definition of what makes us
“real” can be.
Clark’s soft selves concept has become even more relevant given recent advances in
virtual reality technology. There is a strong feeling of presence that comes from leaving a desk-
anchored screen for freedom of movement with wide field of view virtual reality goggles,
believable audio, body- and gaze-tracking, and immersive content. These particular tools extend
the soft self to offer something closer to Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” as described by
Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology:
The theory of the body schema is, implicitly, the theory of perception… we shall
need to reawaken our experience of the world as it appears to us in so far as we
are in the world through our body, and in so far as we perceive the world with our
body. But by thus remaking contact with the body and with the world, we shall
also rediscover ourself, since, perceiving as we do with our body, the body is a
natural self and, as it were, the subject of perception. (Merleau-Ponty, p. 239)

As I will discuss further in this chapter, it turns out that the sense of self, perception and presence
described by Merleau-Ponty all have an unexpected flexibility. In fact, we have a plastic
presence that allows for a sort of “injection-molding” into different virtual spaces or different
computer generated representations of body forms: we take on the form the mold that we have
been “poured into.” People can actually feel as if they have been transported to another place or

24
that they inhabit a different body, which will be discussed further in this chapter. This is not to
say that participants entirely forget their physical world whereabouts or completely detach from
the environment in which their bodies actually reside, but this secondary connection can be
intense.
Importantly, these sensations of presence can only be achieved if the changes in the
virtual environment happen in real time, that is, if the viewer participant is allowed to move
freely while the digital environment changes visually and aurally in exact keeping with gaze,
location and body position (jumping, squatting, bending, and so on). This combination of virtual
reality tools, including goggles and fast computer graphics, invokes a fully immersive experience
that takes advantage of our plastic presence. By using both body and the kairos of a real time
delivery to create an empathetic connection, a new embodied digital rhetoric emerges for
framing persuasive arguments. By situating the body on scene at a digital representation of a
physical world space and activating feelings of presence so that the viewer feels as if they are in
the middle of a news story, the narrative itself can become a powerful lived and embodied
experience.
While most of us are familiar with the sensation of having our minds take us to another
place, like my immersion as a young girl reading Mountain Pony, few people have yet
experienced the virtual reality mind/body-trick that occurs when the eyes and ears are fed
imagery and audio that correspond with natural head and body movements. This is rapidly
changing as the technology is now reaching wider audiences through the recent advent of the
Oculus Rift and other lower cost goggles. With growing possibilities for “recovering delivery”
though the inclusion of the body, as Porter (2008) has deftly advocated, embodied digital rhetoric
can be particularly persuasive and resonant if it draws from real, physical world stories. I have

25
been calling the technique of placing a participant in the middle of a virtual reality recreation of a
news story immersive journalism, immersive documentary or immersive nonfiction.
The encounter in the virtual Gone Gitmo illustrates immersive journalism to a certain
degree, but when viewer participants feel that they are actually embodied as themselves,
experiencing an intense nonfiction narrative without costume, role or pretense, something
exceptional occurs. As evidenced through my piece Hunger in Los Angeles, which I will detail
shortly, when participants became on-scene witnesses to a crisis unfolding at a food bank line,
the powerful sensation of “being-in-THAT- world” was felt across different genders, ethnicities,
ages, and computer-sophistication levels. While not privileging virtual reality over text, audio or
film, it has become crucial that we strive to understand and accept the potential of embodied
digital rhetoric in order to utilize (and engender critical thinking about) its ability to engage us in
the important stories of our world. We should also be prepared for it to become the ready-tool of
propaganda, which will almost certainly occur.

The Screen, Our Embodied Presence
We accept that we experience text. We understand that the written word can convey
meaning and engross us completely. For both novels and nonfiction, the mind constructs the
meaning of encountered symbols to evoke pleasure, excitement, sorrow, and, on important
occasion, to “hear” a call to action. We bring our feelings of presence, of immersion, to where
that meaning takes us. We also believe that this long-accepted form of communication offers a
legitimate connection, whether it be fantastical or valued as true.
With the advent of online virtual communication, our relationship to text on the computer
screen has engendered debate over whether the same legitimacy conveyed to offline text and,

26
importantly, to our physical selves should still apply. In Second Life, the green avatar and I were
not communicating with voice, only typing our replies to each other with our virtual hands
mimicking the “typing on a keyboard” motion that was one of the hallmarks of the early version
of the platform. Our encounter was mediated by a technology that put us somewhere between a
fully text-based virtual world and a completely embodied virtual reality experience. My reaction
to what she was typing/saying, her spiky appearance and the slapping baseball bat were not so
irrelevant that I could simply dismiss what was happening by logging off. She was in my
territory and she was attacking me in a way unusual for Second Life, a social platform not
designed for competitive or violent game play.
In 1993, Julian Dibbell wrote a story in the Village Voice titled “A Rape in Cyberspace,
or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a
Database into a Society,” which describes the experience of exu, a member of the text-based
world LambdaMoo, who expresses terrible, tear-wrought anguish over her virtual rape. In his
piece, Dibbell said that he found himself undergoing a transformation as he invested more time
in world. “Where before I’d found it hard to take virtual rape seriously, I now was finding it
difficult to remember how I could ever not have taken it seriously.” This shift caused him to
question his fundamental beliefs. “…[I]n fact, the more seriously I took the notion of virtual
rape, the less seriously I was able to take the tidy division of the world into the symbolic and the
real” (1993, p. 14).
Dibbell was struggling with the same question asked by Quastro at the start of the
chapter, “Where does the body end and the mind begin?” The Cartesian split suggests that the
mind and body can be regarded as separate entities. However, film, visual media, and virtual
reality theorists have long called into question this bifurcation, seeking instead to find cohesion

27
between where we are in the world and our connection to the images we see before us. Their
work offers a parallel for considering how body and perception intertwine through the medium
of the screen and can help elucidate why our plastic presence permits embodied digital rhetoric.
There are certain film theorist who regard the audience member as a sort of whole body
participant observer, using phenomenology to define how and what that may be. For example,
Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener (2010) believe the body’s involvement in understanding
cinema is crucial. They “focus on the ‘return’ to the body as a complex yet indivisible surface of
communication and perception” (p.124) and use several film theorists to delineate this position.
Laura Marks (2000) uses the term “haptic visuality” to name “a contact between perceiver and
object represented.” She continues, noting that haptic visuality “suggests the way vision can be
tactile, as though one were touching a film with one’s eyes” (p.12.). As early as 1960, film
theorist Siegfried Kracauer claimed that, “unlike the other type of pictures, film images affect
primarily the spectator’s senses, engaging him physiologically before he is in a position to
respond intellectually” (p. 127). Most crucial, however, is Vivian Sobchack’s appropriately
named Address of the Eye (1992) and her use of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Sobchack
writes, “…my fingers knew what I was looking at…” even before the image focused to reveal
hands on the keys in The Piano. She considers this evidence of the necessity in taking a whole
body approach to the experience of cinema, one that couples observation with participation.
Sobchack continues:
[M]ost film theorists seem either embarrassed or bemused by bodies that often act
wantonly and crudely at the movies… [C]lassical and contemporary film theory have not
fully addressed the cinema as life expressing life, as experience expressing experience…
Indeed it is this mutual capacity for and possession of experience through common
structures of embodied existence, through similar modes of being-in-the-world, that
provides the intersubjective basis of objective cinematic communication. (Sobchack, p.5)

28
The idea suggested by these notes is that cinema is not merely conceived by the mind via an
ocular system but rather is understood through resonant feelings of presence in the world,
intermingling sensory experience and consciousness.
Phenomenology has also been used to explore connection and interaction with computers,
including the work of Paul Dourish in his 2001 book Where the Action Is (2001.) He explains,
“In contrast to philosophical positions that look for a ‘truth’ independent of our own experience,
phenomenology holds that the phenomena of experience are central to the questions of ontology
(the study of the nature of being and categories of existence) and epistemology (the study of
knowledge)” (p. 103). Dourish summarizes Heidegger’s position as “the meaningfulness of
everyday experience lies not in the head, but in the world.” In fact, it is Heidegger’s Dasein,
translated as “being-in-the-world,” which informs Sobchack’s ideas about an audience’s
relationship to cinema.
Certainly, phenomenology has been taken up both explicitly and experimentally in work
on virtual worlds and virtual bodies. “The Corporeal Body in Virtual Reality” (Murrays and
Sixsmith, 1999) and “Corporeal Virtuality: The Impossibility of a Fleshless Ontology”
(Richardson and Harper, 2001) maintain there is truth in Merleau-Ponty’s claim that “my body is
to the greatest extent what everything is: a dimensional this. It is the universal thing” (1968, pp.
liv-lv). By considering the corporeal, authors Murrays and Sixsmith and Richardson and Harper
reacted against the then prevailing Cartesian approach to virtual reality in which the mind can
leave the body behind as it experiences “having had your everything amputated” (Barlow, 1990,
p. 42). Instead, they argue that “such complacency neglects to consider that our body is our
originary and inescapable anchorage and opening onto the world by which all information and

29
knowledge is accessed and meaning generated. We live through our bodies…” (Richardson and
Harper, 2001, p. 13).
If there is an overwhelming connection to what we are seeing on a screen, Anne
Friedberg’s consideration of the virtual window offers some insight. Friedberg (2003) struggles
with “Descartes’ description of a subject who stood outside the world and represented reality to
him/herself.” For Friedberg, the solution comes from Heidegger’s world as a picture: that “the
world becomes picture is one and the same event with the event of man’s becoming subjectum in
the midst of that which is (p. 342). Friedberg’s surveys the historical landscape for the frames of
“that which is” and finds Heidegger’s picture in the virtual window offered by paintings,
photographs and our modern screens, be they television, film or computer.
However, Friedberg finds she must return to Cartesian imagery in order to make sense of
the computer’s virtual spaces, with their “new ‘windowed’ multiplicity of perspectives [where]
we can be at two (or more) places at once, in two (or more) time frames in a fractured post-
Cartesian time.” Where exactly do our bodies lay for Friedberg? Does “post-Cartesian” infer that
the split, this time into multiple minds, creates a sheared distinction from our physical selves?
For Friedberg we are still leches les vitrines/licking the windows, rather than achieving the
“being-in-the-world” of the images we see, no matter whether we react with a desire comparable
to the emotions we feel as if we are standing outside a shop front window peering in on material
goods that we can imagine bringing us pleasure.
Friedberg’s arguments unfortunately lose the body at what may be a crucial moment. We
stand frozen at the window or slaves to our desks. This contrasts to the otherwise similar framing
neuroscientist Antonio Damasio offers. Damasio (1994) writes, “Contrary to traditional scientific
opinion, feelings are just as cognitive as other percepts. They are the result of the most curious

30
physiological arrangement that has turned the brain into the body’s captive audience…Were it
not for the possibility of sensing body states that are inherently ordained to be painful or
pleasurable, there would be no suffering or bliss, no longing or mercy, no tragedy or glory in the
human condition.” This quote, taken from the book Descartes’ Error, is intended to illustrate
that all perception, feeling and experience are based on an interconnection of mind and body (p.
xviii).
So, what then if we are able to step through Friedberg’s frame to embrace an experience
more closely related to Damasio’s neurobiological union? As touched on earlier, advances in
virtual reality goggle technology can produce experiences that elicit a secondary presence that
allows us to feel as if we exist in two worlds at the same time. Indeed, this “different kind of
embodiment” that Richardson and Harpers (2001) foresaw, in many ways offers an immersion
that overlays digitally created imagery onto our mental perceptions of our physical bodies. This
allows us to apply that same “biological plasticity” as described by Clark’s soft selves. He says,
“[W]e humans… are biologically disposed towards literal (and repeated) episodes of sensory re-
calibration, of bodily reconfiguration and of mental extension. Such potential for literal and
repeated re-configuration is the mark of what I shall call ‘profoundly embodied agency’…”
(Clark, p. 263, 2007).
In fact, virtual reality technology has been used to explore this flexibility of body
ownership, body reconfiguration and body agency in several studies. For example, Mel Slater, a
computer science professor at the University of Barcelona, Institució Catalana de Recerca I
Estudis Avançats (ICREA) and University College London, alongside research colleague Maria
Sanchez Vives, neuroscientist at the University of Barcelona, and others have created a series of
studies to measure RAIR – Response as if Real

(Slater, 2009; Slater, Spanlang, Sanchez-Vives,

31
Blanke, 2010). RAIR requires two critical components: place illusion and plausibility. Place
illusion refers to the sense that one is in a place that feels believable. Plausibility means that the
situation depicted is not so fantastical as to completely disconnect the participant from the
narrative. These concepts have direct equivalents in rhetoric, as connection to story and
believability of a narrative line are central to making a persuasive argument.
This does not mean RAIR experiences must mirror participants’ perception of themselves
in the non-virtual. In one experiment, grown men successfully inhabited and connected to the
virtual body of an eight-year-old girl (Slater, Spanlang, Sanchez-Vives, Blanke, 2010). Another
project created an illusion in which participants experienced ownership over a virtual arm that
was up to three times the length of their normal arm, although that ownership connection
weakened as the arm grew longer (Kilteni, Normand, Sanchez-Vives, Slater M., 2012.)
In one of my earliest immersive journalism pieces, we put participants “ into the body” of
a detainee in a stress position. While sitting upright on a stool with their hands clasped behind
their backs, participants heard a binaural recreation of a real interrogation that sounded as if it
was coming from another room. Throughout, participants wore virtual reality goggles with
tracking so that a bound detainee seen in a virtual mirror could synchronously mimic their
movements and breathing. After less than fifteen minutes, participants indicated they had taken
on the hunched position of the virtual reality detainee despite the fact they were actually sitting
upright (de la Peña, et al., 2010). The participants accepted the embodied narrative to the degree
that they believed their bodies mirrored the detainee avatar, despite the true comportment of their
bodies in the physical world.
In another example, researchers at the 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems in Paris presented results indicating that just looking at an avatar wearing a

32
backpack makes participants “feel” the extra weight. A group of students who saw that a
backpack was attached to an avatar that they themselves had created overestimated the heights of
virtual hills. The researchers noted that this finding was consistent with physical world results, in
which people tend to overestimate heights and distances while carrying extra weight.
These studies initially seem to support a Cartesian split wherein the mind can be
manipulated to accept a body that is unrelated to the one it actually controls. In actuality, the
body’s involvement was crucial to all of the results. For example, in the first two studies
described here, the researcher stroked the subject’s actual arm while the subject, wearing virtual
reality goggles, looked down or at a virtual mirror that showed a faux arm growing or placed
him/her inside the virtual 8-year-old’s body. In the detainee study, the experiment required
participants to clasp their hands behind the back, enhancing bodily participation in a sensation of
being bound and hunched over. The backpack study recalled the body through past experience, a
cohesion of body and mind as described by Hume’s argument that the knowledge that touching
something hot will burn will then modify all present and future behavior.
Experiences of the body are also informed by cultural contexts and priming from implicit
memory can affect “who we are.” For example, identity and performance change with costume
and role-play, a behavioral manifestation that has been well studied both offline and online.
Philip Zimbardo’s notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, which simulated an incarceration
experience using college students, found that the “prison guards” soon became sadistic and the
“prisoners” showed signs of stress and depression. Apparently, the playacting became so
problematic that the experiment had to be shut down earlier than intended. Other studies noted
that subjects wearing black uniforms behaved more aggressively than subjects wearing white

33
uniforms (1988 Frank and Gilovich) and that subjects dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes delivered
significantly longer shocks than those in nurses’ uniforms (Johnson and Downing, 1979).
Similar results are found online. For example, researcher Jorge Peña (2008) found that
participants’ behavior was changed by the appearance of their avatars. When they were assigned
avatars costumed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, they played more aggressively than avatars dressed in
white doctor coats. Slater et al. (2006) repeated the infamous Milgram study
7
, and participants
were found to have both subjective and physiological responses when they applied “shocks” to a
screaming avatar they could see and hear.
Yee and Bailenson (2007) designated attractive or unattractive avatars to subjects who
shared a virtual space with counterparts “blind” to the condition – the counterparts only saw an
“untextured face” that was “structurally human but left uncolored.” The results found that those
who believed themselves to be more attractive were friendlier and moved significantly closer in
the virtual space to their counterpart’s avatar compared to the unattractive or average appearing
avatar. In the same series of experiments, Yee and Bailenson used height as a mitigating
characteristic. Subjects and their counterparts were each given two turns to divvy up one hundred
dollars. If they both agreed to the split, however uneven, they were allowed to keep the money. If
they could not agree, the money would be forfeited. In this scenario, the benign counterpart saw
his/her avatar as being of equal height to that of the subject of the study’s avatar. However, the
subject of the study saw his/her own avatar as being either taller, the same height or shorter than
their counterpart’s avatar. Yee and Bailenson found that when subjects perceived their avatars to
be taller, they tended to propose splits with higher cash values in their own favor. It seems that

7
The 1963 Milgram study found that subjects readily complied when encouraged to give stronger and stronger
electric shocks to a supposed “learner” who was actually an actor. The “learner” would purposely get quiz questions
wrong and then act out a pain response appropriate to the supposed level of electric shock that the subjects thought
they were administering.

34
just slight adjustments in “self-perception” can have a significant impact on user behavior, a
phenomenon Yee and Bailenson call “The Proteus Effect.” Perhaps the green spiky suit and
sharp bladed skates contributed to the aggressiveness of the Second Life avatar I encountered
while almost certainly enhancing my wariness. This means that journalism stories will almost
certainly have to consider carefully not just what is depicted but also the embodied form of the
viewer as well.
Our plastic presence is also reflected more generally in how societal attitudes can easily
migrate and map onto online behavior. According to Nowak and Rauh (2007), virtual
appearance, like physical world appearance, significantly affects how users interact with one
another. They note, “Despite the obvious media differences, research suggests that the
underlying process of perceiving people online is analogous to the process of perceiving people
offline” (p. 1474). Nowak and Rauh also found that identifiable gender was central to online
perception and conduct while sexual harassment has also been documented as part of online
environments for nearly twenty years. When Bruckman (1992) decided to examine text-based
multi-user virtual environments called MUDs, her research found that female players were
subjected to sexual overtures as soon as they came online:
Female characters are often besieged with attention. By typing the who command,
it is possible to get a list of all characters logged on. The page command allows
one to talk to people not in the same room. Many male players will get a list of all
present, and then page characters with female names. Unwanted attention and
sexual advances create an uncomfortable atmosphere for women in MUDs, just as
they do in real life. (Bruckman, 1992, p.2)

We considered the issue for virtual worlds, and in survey data we collected of Second
Life users, we found that 92% of females with female avatars reported being regularly harassed.
In keeping with offline studies indicating that women regularly find a situation more harassing
than men do, the data also found that females with female avatars felt much more harassed than

35
males using male avatars (the full study is discussed in Chapter Four). As one user commented in
that study:
This is so common to Virtual Worlds of adult nature, it's going to happen. It does
in both worlds, or any worlds I've been to.

While sexual coercion might not be physical in the same way as experienced offline, like
Dibbell’s “A Rape in Cyberspace,” comments offered by the women players of Second Life
make clear how deeply the abuse can be felt. One player said, [T]his time I ran across a real
stinker. Not just obnoxious, but sexually violent and verbally abusive. If it had been real life, I
would have had some pretty serious injuries, and I would definitely have called the cops.” When
asked how she responded, a player wrote, “Cried and wrote in my live journal.” Another
comment also exemplifies how powerful text still can be in a virtual world: “[T]he person who
followed me saying he would ‘rape my face,’ was extremely upsetting.” Clearly, the sense of
coercion can be deeply felt and may have similar psychological impact to offline experiences
8
.
There is, of course, a crucial distinction. Virtual world attacks that are described with text
or realized through animations are not indicators that the person behind the keyboard would
actually take action in the physical world. They may be more akin to someone simply shouting a
threat – viscerally felt but physically bounded. Dibbell reveals the real rapist in LambdaMOO to
actually be a group of male college students at the keyboard acting together, an encouraging mob
most likely oblivious to and unconcerned with the actual anxiety they might be causing. (One is
reminded of the Stanford university students acting in a collaboration of aggression.)

8
In the physical world, sexual harassment has been found to have a number of negative consequences. It is a
worldwide problem that affects students, those in the military, people at work and at social events. As Barak (2005)
notes, “Theory and research show that sexual harassment… has substantial personal and organizational costs”
(p.77). It depresses morale, lowers worker productivity and “[t]hese experiences were associated with deleterious
mental and physical health conditions” (Street, Stafford, Mahan and Hendricks, 2008. p. 409). While sexual
harassment can be aimed at different genders and those of different sexual orientation, women remain
predominantly the target of such unwanted advances (Barak, 2005; Street, et al., 2008; Gruber, 1997; Paludi &
Paludi, 2003).

36
However, what would those male students have felt had they been playing as a female,
using a gender-swapped avatar to act as their online presence?
9
Our same Second Life study
measuring prevalence of sexual harassment found an unexpected result. When men who had
swapped into female avatars became victims of sexual harassment, they found the experience
significantly more harassing than women playing with a female avatar. Unfortunately, these male
players were not asked why they felt more harassed, and we are left wondering what made them
connect so significantly to their female avatars that they expressed such a strong reaction. Still,
this data supports a sentiment expressed by a player interviewed by Turkle (1995), whose text-
based gender swapping led him to have a “newfound empathy with women”:
Other players start showering you with money to help you get started, and
I had never once gotten a handout when playing a male player. And then
they feel they should be allowed to tag along forever. Then when you give
them the knee after they grope you, they wonder what your problem is,
reciting that famous saying, “What’s your problem? It’s only a game.”
(Turkle, p. 222)

While a discussion about sexual harassment may seem a detour, in fact it is extremely
relevant in considerations of digital rhetoric. After all, how extraordinary that individuals can
connect to their virtual selves to such a degree that they have strong feelings of empathy, even
when their gender swapping is occurring only on screen. This connection, a clear example of
plastic presence, was also crucial for Gone Gitmo and our work that put the audience in the
“body” of a detainee in a stress position. It is also key to understanding why Hunger in Los
Angeles offers a successful example of fully embodied digital rhetoric.

9
Much has been written about gender swapping on the internet, including Bruckman’s early work on text-based
MUDs as well as later research by Savicki et al. (1996) and Senft, (1997). It has also been a topic in a number of
books, with Sherry Turkle devoting a chapter to the issue in Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
(1995), while Howard Rheingold’s Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (1993), Stone’s
The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age (1995) and the edited volume Virtual Gender
(2001) have all discussed the issue.

37
Hunger in Los Angeles
I constructed Hunger in Los Angeles to call attention to the important issue in the United
States of people going hungry in the economic downturn and the strain on food banks trying to
help. Rather than using video or text, my intent was to put the audience inside the news
story/documentary using virtual reality to recreate a nonfiction event. The piece, which
premiered in January of 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival, reconstructed a dramatic crisis that
took place at a food bank in August, 2011. A man with diabetes was one of dozens in a long line
of people, desperate to obtain food. However, the wait prevented him from receiving sustenance
in time to stop a precipitous blood sugar drop. He had a seizure and went into a diabetic coma,
all of which was recorded with audio and photographs. That material was then used to inform the
reconstruction.
First, three-dimensional models were built depicting the street and surrounding buildings.
Virtual humans, both donated and purchased online, were programmed through the use of
motion capture. This meant the virtual humans moved with natural human gestures instead of
computer-generated animations. Audio was edited from approximately seventy-five minutes
down to six and half minutes, including reducing the wait time for the ambulance from
approximately twenty minutes to two minutes. The sounds capture how overwhelmed the woman
running the food bank finds herself as she begins shouting, “There’s too many people!” and
“Please don’t push!” When the diabetic man collapses, the sounds of panicked calls to 911 and
worried bystanders can be heard.

38

A composite image merging the physical world location and the virtual world build
of Hunger in Los Angeles

Wearing virtual reality goggles and headphones, the audience moves freely around a life-
sized experience that places them in the middle of the scene as it unfolds. The genuine looking
street and buildings, the natural movement of the avatars and the powerful audio create a striking

39
realism, even if the avatars look slightly cartoonish or strange. When the man falls to the ground
in the throes of his seizure, the impact is both startling and disturbing.
At the Sundance premiere, surveys were taken of a 155 users, whose demographics broke
down to 57% male and 42% female (one preferred not to answer) and included ages ranging
from 10 to 65. A variety of backgrounds were also present, most likely because, unlike films at
the festival, the exhibit required no tickets and anyone could walk in. In fact, participants came
from a cross section of ethnicities and races, including whites, African-Americans, Latinos,
Asians, with some specifically noting they were American Indian, Jewish or Middle-Eastern.
In order to measure feelings of “presence,” of “being-in-that-world,” the survey relied on
the Slater, Usoh and Steed (SUS) questionnaire, which offers language to test connection to a
virtual environment. A five point Likert scale was used, with potential responses ranging from
strongly agree to strongly disagree. One of the key questions was, “At times during the
experience, did the virtual environment feel like reality to you?” The results came back as
significant, with 109 respondents indicating that the experience did “feel like reality" to them (88
agreeing and 28 strongly agreeing). Of those, 106 also felt “frustrated” that they could not help
the seizure victim. In fact, there was a clear correlation: if participants agreed the experience felt
like reality, they also reported frustration that they could not help. This was true even though a
peripheral view of the room was still available. This finding is in keeping with the concept of
RAIR mentioned earlier: believability was key to accepting the story as credible.

40

Participants also displayed an identifiable empathy with the scene that supported survey
data. I watched in amazement as users yanked out their mobile phones to call for help at the
moment the seizure victim hit the ground before they remembered that what they were
experiencing was not real. Dozens of people concluded the experience in tears. Many kneeled
down at the head of the virtual seizure victim, speaking aloud as she tried to comfort him while
he lay “unmoving” on the ground.
Comments from participants described this connection: “The experience of the
environment and the story left me feeling a very specific emotion that I don't believe I have felt
previously. I felt the desire to help or to say something in an active voice to the characters on the
street.” Another participant said, “Once I felt immersed in the events, I wanted to do anything I
could to help the seizure victim and the people there. Very heavy piece but it has a lasting
impact…” Similarly, a third person reported, “I would say that I predict a long lasting empathic

41
response in myself; I find myself worried about the victim and concerned about the situation in a
way that I was not previously.” In fact, most comments focused on the overwhelming sensation
of presence and being connected to the unfolding events: “I felt a part of the scene and not only
sympathized with the people online but identified with them as well.”

A woman tries to help the seizure victim while experiencing Hunger In Los Angeles.

42
In keeping with an assertion made in the introduction of this chapter, participants’
comments also described what I call “duality of presence.” Rather than imagining they have been
transported to a virtual space, completely disconnected from their real body, instead viewers
experience something much more akin to a split in consciousness. They feel as if they can be in
two places at once. “It was not as though I didn't realize that I was in a virtual environment but as
though two parts of my brain were active and conflicted about the experience,” noted one
participant. “I had to keep reminding myself that this was, in fact, a simulation.” Another
comment agreed, “It was my first experience with virtual reality and I found myself focused on
both the environment and the altered awareness of self that I was experiencing.” It was perhaps
best put by a third participant, “Connected and disconnected at the same time.” This strange
existence in both worlds has been supported by research that found that when avid World of
Warcraft players thought about their avatars, the same areas of the brain were activated as when
they were thinking about themselves. Interestingly, in that same study, the area of the brain
associated with imagination was also activated, as if the experience felt real and imaginary at the
same time (Callaway, 2009).
A small group of Hunger in Los Angeles participants indicated they were not absorbed
and the common theme in their comments was that they were particularly focused on the
technology versus the content of the experience. Our limited data has thus far been unable to
tease out any demographic connection with this minority of participants who disagreed or
strongly disagreed that Hunger at some point felt real. One thing we were able to rule out was
that a previous robust video gaming or virtual reality experience was not the common glue.
An element that may have had an effect on the larger population who felt connected to
and present at the scene was the possibility that they were primed to believe the story was “real.”

43
Certainly the audience was told that the audio was recorded on scene and the immersive content
shared the same intent as a documentary or news piece. People often read meaning into what
were simply low quality graphics. For example, I was told that the rough-looking arms of one
woman made it clear she was a heroin addict. Another person noted that the seizure victim’s
knees were clearly marked up from falling to the ground so often. While we had not included
questions on prior experience in the survey, a number of individuals who were particularly
shaken told me that they had actually been present when someone had a seizure in real life and
were feeling the same anxiety as they had originally.
Despite having been built on a gaming platform, Hunger in Los Angeles offered little
agency to the participants. They could not affect the linear nature of the narrative, which
unfolded much like the real events of the day and no intervention could have shifted time or the
events in the physical world from which it was captured. There were no levels, no points. This
was part of the design; after all, one cannot change events that unfold in the real world. Like a
news or nonfiction story, participants were simply witnesses. This lack of being able to control
or affect what was happening was registered in both the survey data and noted repeatedly
participants’ comments. “I did feel disempowered about being unable to get help or speed up the
process to getting the man help.” Finally, in a comment that in many ways summarizes the
overall experience of immersion, empathy and frustration, a participant said, “I did feel bad I
couldn't help the seizure victim. I felt like I was really there. Made me understand what they
went through…”

Conclusion
Humans have long been able to immerse themselves in other worlds, through oral story

44
or novels, painting, photographs, television, cinema and pure imagination. The mind does not
travel alone – the body most certainly comes along for the ride. For example, a 2008 study found
that die-hard fans have greater heart attack risks from the stress of watching their favorite sports
teams (Wilbert-Lampen, Leistner, Greven, Pohl, Sper, et al., 2008). The joys and sorrows of
connection are real, as also exemplified by research on sexual harassment. However, I would
argue we are on the cusp of a grand shift in which the sense of bodily presence has been
extended from the physical world and that a new form of immersion has arisen. This uncoupling
of digital experience from the frame of the computer screen by using wide field of view virtual
reality goggles and appropriate audio and content offers a new way for our soft selves to not just
enjoy an extended body, but to also occupy space and become present inside a story.
While this concept of using virtual reality for realistic news or nonfiction may seem
strange at first, a critical examination of the essential element of any current news medium raises
similar questions. Why should the symbols of text be any more valid? Is the 2D video on a flat
television or computer screen any more authentic? The lack of realism inherent in the computer
graphics that engender the most criticism and deny credibility to immersive journalism is
disappearing quickly.
Despite its limitations, Hunger in Los Angeles underscores the worthiness of building
virtual experiences that incorporate some of the physicality we enjoy in the natural world in
order to tell the stories that come from our natural world. The piece achieves the lauded goal for
journalists to give the audience “a view from the ground,” as World War II reporter Martha
Gellhorn called it. While not replacing the reality of our flesh and blood on scene, Hunger in Los
Angeles and the technology it employs offer a deeply felt being-in-the world. It can certainly be
considered persuasive expression, in keeping with traditional rhetoric.

45
Ultimately, I would argue that this type of immersive nonfiction virtual reality brings us
closer to the Damasio’s unified body and mind. The ability to move freely while having an
existence in another place is specific to this technology and, as exemplified by Hunger in Los
Angeles, an effective “different kind of embodiment.” I can even state, based on my data, that
with appropriate imagery and audio, immersive virtual reality can create a “being-in-that-world”
measured by the philosophy of the phenomenologist. In sum, Clark’s soft selves concept and the
idea of plastic presence merge, something that may have been more pronounced because
participants understood that what they were experiencing a recreation of an actual event in Los
Angeles with desperately hungry people.
Not only does immersive nonfiction deserve a respected place alongside the traditional
journalistic tools of text, radio, and film, it allows a complete experience for the embodied mind.
While we can start our engaged journey with text (recall my connection to the novel Mountain
Pony), film or other visual encounter, there is a fundamental shift when the body is no longer
relegated to the theatre seat or desk chair and can move within the content. The soft self’s plastic
presence goes beyond the digital plasticity of William Gibson as described by Jeremy Bailenson
and Andrew Beall (2005), which considers only the malleability of presentation. Instead, we
remain who we are when we travel the nonfiction story, without costume and without pretense.
This manifestation of “oneself,” akin to being present in the natural world, allows the world’s
stories to be communicated in a uniquely visceral manner. Ultimately, it also means that with the
new era of embodied digital rhetoric, effective persuasion will require novel approaches as the
orator must now consider the freedom of the spectator’s gaze, embodied position and avatar
presentation within the content and context of the multi-dimensional story. After all, in virtual
reality, looking away no longer means one is not paying attention.

46
CHAPTER THREE: EMBODIMENT AND BEHAVIORAL REALISM: CHALLENGING
THE NOTION OF THE UNCANNY VALLEY

With my earliest pieces, I lacked funds to create hyperrealistic digital characters, and I
often had to purchase cheap stands-in with auto-generated movements. That did not stop me
from trying to emulate real stories to the best of my abilities, even with financial constraints.
However, reactions to the content were so strong, I felt it important to consider why these pieces
were so effective given the visual limitations, something that seemed to contradict the widely
held belief in the uncanny valley. The following chapter examines my ideas on why duality of
presence and embodiment are more important than visual fidelity for connecting audiences with
a story. An earlier version of this chapter was published as part of the MIT Press collection,i-
docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary, edited by Judith Aston, Sandra
Gaudenzi and Mandy Rose and published in 2017.

“In fact it is real. It isn’t fiction.”
Words penciled by a patron in a guestbook after experiencing Project Syria.

In June of 2014, we installed Project Syria, a computer generated virtual reality
journalism experience that I designed and which recreates scenes from the Syrian civil crisis, in
the “Tapestry Room” at the Victorian and Albert museum in London. The set up was far from
elegant, especially in contrast to the sumptuous centuries old, ornately hand-sewn
communication antiquities hanging on the walls. Eighteen scuffed black boxes, second-
generation motion-tracking cameras created by a company called Phasespace, were connected to
each other through a long string of Ethernet cables. These were mounted on eight heavy, durable
tripods, creating an approximately 15x20-foot boundary box that demarcated the space where
users could walk while wearing virtual reality goggles.
The installation was not advertised by the museum. That meant that visiting patrons,
hailing from all parts of the globe, had not anticipated the exhibition and were alerted to the
experience only by a sign outside the entrance to the tapestry room. On entering, they would find
a strange scene of someone walking around in heavy goggles, a duct-taped box like contraption
covering their eyes and bright red lights mounted like a Christmas-bulbed antenna above their

47
head. All of this is to say that, given such an unfamiliar and tenuous-appearing apparatus on
show, visitors had to be somewhat daring to try out the Project Syria virtual reality journalism
experience.

Fig. 1 and 2: Project Syria in the Victoria and Albert’s Tapestries Room – June 2014

Project Syria is based on factually documented events; first a moment in Aleppo when a
mortar shell hits a crowded city street and then a type of virtual reality infographic that shows a
rapidly growing refugee camp filling with children. Computer-generated imagery recreating
these scenes, informed by video, audio, and photographs, plays back in a game engine
synchronous with the powerful sounds captured on scene. While attempts were made to mirror
the physical world episodes as closely as possible, the reconstruction had little financing,
resulting in low fidelity digital characters and buildings.

48
Despite these limitations and the strangeness and complexity of the set up, numerous
V&A patrons felt compelled to write comments in the Project Syria guestbook. In fact, at the end
of the five-day exhibition, which had not been publicized in any way other beyond the signage
posted outside the Tapestry Room, 54 pages of extraordinary and emotional responses filled the
guestbook in an outpouring that a museum curator called unprecedented. Remarks consistently
exclaimed how “real” and “immersive” the experience was and how they felt as if they were
“actually there,” with one distinct comment noting: “This was a very difficult piece to experience
(as a Syrian whose family is still living in Homs). Although I felt the piece was inappropriate at
first, I have certainly changed my mind after experiencing it first hand. It is important for the
world to bear witness to the situation in Syria and this is a powerful and effective way to do
that...”
What makes something like Project Syria so visceral that it commands such powerful
commentary from its audience? Can it be considered nonfiction or virtual documentary? And
what about the uncanny valley, widely accepted by many within immersive design as a guiding
truth? These are the questions that Project Syria prompted, and which I take up in this chapter.
In both gaming and cinema, the uncanny valley is used to describe the concept that digital
characters can produce a creepy sensation if they are situated in the supposed computer-
simulated purgatorial state between “friendly low-fidelity” and “real enough” (see Mori et al
1970). Seymour, Riemer and Kay (2017) explain the concept further:
This theory, now over 40 years old, predicts that acceptance increases
steadily as realism in face presentation increases, before dropping off
sharply and becoming negative. It then rises strongly again as realism
approaches perfect reproduction.... The resulting ‘valley’ captures
metaphorically the effect that faces can be almost real but feel ‘wrong’ in
subtle, yet important ways. These close, but not accurate, faces make the

49
outcome worse before it becomes better in a very non-linear fashion
(p.1).
10

Should journalists and documentarians allow the ideas behind the uncanny valley to
inform their approach when creating immersive journalism experiences in virtual reality? My
work has led me to believe otherwise and I suggest that a closer look at behavioral realism and
feelings of presence in this medium offer greater insights into what creates a connection or
disconnection for audiences. This chapter will use my work to frame a discussion challenging the
uncanny valley in virtual reality, with a particular focus on how feelings of embodiment akin to
real world experience is more important for fully immersing audiences in a nonfiction story than
observing visual fidelity.

Reflecting on the Uncanny Valley
Over the past decade that I have been developing virtual reality experiences, the
photorealism of the technology has improved dramatically. Most recently, my work has relied
almost entirely on photogrammetry to capture individuals, a process which stitches video from
dozens of cameras together from all angles and therefore leaps to the other side of the supposed
uncanny valley chasm because it shares the same verisimilitude as film. However, prior to the
advent of photogrammetry, I relied entirely on computer generated characters for my nonfiction
virtual reality pieces. I have now constructed multiple experiences using these non-realistic
appearing digital humans, including Hunger in Los Angeles, Project Syria, Use of Force, Kiya,
Trayvon Martin, and Across the Line. Together they have allowed me to observe, record and
survey thousands of people’s embodied reactions to volumetric stories designed to convey a

10
While I agree with this effort to revisit the uncanny valley based on increased avatar realism, this chapter takes a
different tact: that realism isn’t required to dispel the “creepiness” described by the uncanny valley theory

50
believable and persuasive nonfiction narrative. I have referred to this structure as “embodied
digital rhetoric” in Chapter Two:
In fact, we have a plastic presence that allows for “injection-molding”
into different spaces or different body forms. People can actually feel as if they
have been transported to another place or that they inhabit a different body...This
is not to say that participants entirely forget their physical world whereabouts or
completely detach from the environment in which their bodies actually reside,
but this secondary connection can be intense. Importantly, these sensations of
presence can only be achieved if the changes in the virtual environment happen
in real time, that is, if the viewer participant is allowed to move freely while the
digital environment changes visually and aurally in exact keeping with gaze,
location and body position (jumping, squatting, bending, etc). This combination
of virtual reality tools, including goggles and fast computer graphics, invokes a
fully immersive experience that takes advantage of our plastic presence. By using
both body and the kairos of a real time delivery to create an empathetic
connection, a new embodied digital rhetoric emerges for framing persuasive
arguments. (Chapter Two, p. 4)

The feeling of being actually situated on scene is crucial to an audience accepting that they are
bearing witness to a nonfiction event that parallels a physical world occurrence. My pieces allow
the audience to remain who they are when they travel through the story by using a virtual reality
system that requires no avatar, no controllers, and nothing but natural human motion to give an
experience without costume and without pretense.
It is my belief that this manifestation of “oneself,” akin to being present in the natural
world, allows the stories to be communicated in a uniquely visceral manner. In rhetoric terms
this would be considered a persuasive device. This sensation remains true even though there is
what I call a duality of presence: participants know that they remain in the physical location
where their body resides but they also feel at the exact same time as if they have been transported
to the environment where the scene is unfolding. In many ways, they typically travel through the
events with no digital manifestation of a body like “a ghost,” a comment that I have frequently
heard. (We are always ghosts in the cinema – in the sense that we are witnessing events unseen –

51
but because virtual reality has evoked a sense of presence, the lack of a body suddenly becomes
starkly noticeable.)

By combining virtual reality technologies with sophisticated storytelling
techniques, profound and visceral experiences can be offered to audiences, as exemplified by the
reaction to Project Syria at the V&A.
However, the specter of the “uncanny valley” has often been raised to warn against using
CGI representations of humans within nonfiction virtual environments. The concern is that
audiences will become alienated and the power of the narrative will be diminished. I wish here to
suggest otherwise, having come to the conclusion that there is much evidence that the uncanny
valley thesis, focused originally on real world robots, should not be applied to immersive virtual
reality.

In the last decade, a variety of studies have reflected on the validity of the uncanny valley
(Brenton et al. 2005, MacDorman 2006, Pollick 2010). They have focused primarily on how
techniques used in cinema can create a sensation of the eerie, giving the viewer the feeling that a
character is creepy and scary. The belief is that the presented character strikes the same cord as
an unhealthy human, whose physical or mental deficits signal they perhaps should be avoided.
Yet researchers most often point to specific manipulations, such as unnatural eye or limb
movements, as causing the uneasy sensation rather than the appearance being just short of
lifelike to pass and therefore inducing the classic definition of the uncanny valley (Brenton et al.
2005, MacDorman 2006). Moreover, other studies trying to ascertain a definitive uncanny valley
have often fallen short, leading a reviewer who examined surveyed the field to write, “One
essential question to ask is just whether there is enough evidence to say that the uncanny valley
exists? Surprisingly, the answer is equivocal” (Pollick 2010).

52
While I would agree that immersion can break in virtual reality, I have found that it was
not actually an eeriness that caused problems, rather it is when “realism was not matched with
behavioral realism” (Brenton et al 2005: 2). This chapter uses three pieces – Project Syria
(2014), Use of Force (2013) and Across the Line (2015) – to explore what behavioral realism
looks like and how it can support or devolve immersion through its effect on “response-as-if-
real” (RAIR) (Slater, et al 2009). This further addresses the duality of presence, offering an
approach to understanding why an audience reports that something feels as if what is happening
is real while still knowing it isn’t actually real. This is something that I see as aiding the
acceptance of nonfiction work without sensations of the uncanny, which will increase in
relevance for designing nonfiction as consumer headsets, which allow kinetic experience,
become more commonplace. Finally, a 2017 study has tried to grapple with this concept as well,
examining interactivity, avatar realism and affinity.

Creating Project Syria
At the start of the 2013 fall semester, Elizabeth Daley, the Dean of the USC School of
Cinematic Arts, brought Klaus Schwab, the executive director of the World Economic Forum,
for a visit to experience Hunger in Los Angeles. Hunger, which premiered in January of 2012 at
the Sundance Film Festival, reconstructs an actual crisis when a diabetic man, waiting for a meal
in a long line at a food bank, falls into coma because his blood sugar drops too low. The piece is
now considered to be the first positionally-tracked virtual reality journalism experience that
allowed the audience to walk around the scene as the events unfolded around them. It was built
with little funding and neither volumetric capture nor 360-degree film cameras set-ups were
available at the time. Instead, three-dimensional models were created from photographs of the

53
street and surrounding buildings, while the virtual avatars were programmed through the use of
motion capture, almost entirely through donated labor. Like Project Syria, the characters and
environment can seem like early video game quality if they are viewed in 2D video or
photographs, but when experienced in virtual reality, the piece creates a strong sensation of being
present on scene.
In fact, for Klaus Schwab, like so many others who experienced Hunger, the impact was
instantaneous. After removing the headset, he immediately inquired about the possibility of
creating a piece about the Syrian refugee crisis using the same technology for the following
January’s World Economic Forum meeting. After several months of negotiation, a $35,000
budget was set and work began in earnest to gather the necessary images and audio to act as the
fundamental scaffolding upon which to build something appropriately reflecting the horror and
chaos that has turned so many Syrians into displaced refugees.
The goal of the piece was to offer audiences a sensation of being there when the events
transpired by using elements hewn from real material. The design process initially mirrored my
previous long-form nonfiction cinematic process. The first step was to gather material that
describes an incident while it unfolds, the same type of verité moment that marks the best in
documentary filmmaking. I commissioned a team to collect audio and video while we also began
a review of archives in search of a commanding depiction or event that reflected the larger issues
we were trying to convey.
11

The first version of Project Syria had two scenes. The first part recreated video footage of
a young girl singing on the street in the Old City area of Aleppo. Behind her, the city street
shows a busy afternoon, with vendors selling wares from carts and stalls, a boy rests on a

11
In one tragic occurrence during the research process, a Spanish photographer was announced as kidnapped twenty
minutes after we reached out to ask whether he might have appropriate supporting material we could use.

54
bicycle, a photographer and friends cluster together and cars and trucks drive past in the nearby
street. Suddenly, a mortar shell hits and the ensuing explosion causes chaos, with debris and
smoke filling the air. Screams are heard and the camera shakes as the filmmaker runs.
Although the original video was compelling, the footage ends abruptly after the
explosion. In order to meet design goals that allowed the audience to remain on the scene,
extensive research was done to find other video and audio material that could supplement the
aftermath and extend the piece.
12
Additionally, the streets needed to be fully documented in order
to make an accurate reconstruction. Photographic archives and Google Earth images helped
provide the images necessary to guide in modelling the street before and after the mortal shell
hits.
For the sections that follow the bombing, a film crew was specifically sent to a refugee
camp to capture material that would help convey the anxiety over food deprivation and the
breathtaking growth of refugee camps. Led by filmmaker Namak Khoshaw, a two-person camera
and audio crew was directed to focus on the plight of children as human rights organizations

were reporting that children were being specifically targeted in the violence and made up
disproportionate populations in camps.
13
As Khoshaw and his crew were Kurdish in origin, they
chose Kawergosk, a refugee camp in the Kurdish area of Iraq bordering Syria.

12
Evangelos Lympouridis, PhD, did critical research in finding and translating footage to supplement the
experience, along with his other creative roles.

13
Hamit Dadargan and Hana Salama, Stolen Futures: The Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria, Oxford
Research Group (ORG), London, published 24 November 2013.

55
One page of the art bible used to create Project Syria

Once the material was in hand, scenes were translated into three-dimensional imagery
that could be viewed in real time using the game engine Unity and linked to goggles so that the
imagery responded without any noticeable lag to viewpoint changes when the audience looked or
moved around. The goal was to give the important sensation of being able to walk along the
street scene before, during and after the blast. Viewers were also placed at key vantage points in

56
the following scenes so that they would bear witness to the terrible circumstances of the refugees
trying to survive.
However, with this project there was a chasm between the desire for realism and the
budget for the digital reconstruction. For example, we began the piece hoping to reproduce the
facial expressions of the singing Syrian girl. Unfortunately, we lacked the skillset, funding, and
the time to make the kind of work that could achieve the quality we desired. Instead, the virtual
young girl held her eyes wide-open and moved her lips unnaturally – perhaps even laughably.
Her shape, size and movements could be considered acceptable as “real enough” but a close
examination of her face would have been off-putting. No doubt allowing the audience to watch
her sing would destroy any illusion that a real event was occurring around them.

Fig 4: Singing Girl in Project Syria

We dealt with the problem by keeping her turned to the side, so that the audience could
hear her sing, but not readily witness the inexpert modeling and animation. (Viewers could have
walked around to the front of her, but few did.) Similar problems were hidden, such as when it

57
became clear that coding navigational paths created strange movements when a car or person
tried to adjust for an object in front of them. We found it was better to just drive a car straight
even if it meant colliding into a building “down the street,” where it was out of sight for the
audience because they could not walk to a place where they could see that far.
The final results were extremely successful, first at the World Economic Forum premiere,
where world leaders left dozens of notecards describing their reactions on a bulletin board. Then,
as noted at the start of this chapter, it traveled to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where an
audience comprised of museum-goers from around the world, from children to senior citizens,
described a visceral experience that connected them to the real world events in Syria in a way
that previous exposure from newspaper articles or news broadcasts had not been able to achieve.
One museum-goer said the piece gave her “a real feeling as if you are in the middle of something
you normally see on TV news.”
While focusing on the virtual girl character’s facial animations may have caused viewers
to be distracted from the story, she was never so “real looking” as to have ever entered the
supposedly defined space of the “uncanny valley” which requires the character to look just shy
of real. How the scene felt rather than how the scene looked was the crucial dynamic for how the
piece was experienced. For example, her facial expressions could be considered bad art, but
more relevant was how she acted within the context of the piece. Audiences accepted Project
Syria as journalism because her behavior was appropriate in relation to other characters, to the
scene and to audio. Moreover, by carefully ensuring that she and other characters or objects did
not defy physics such as penetrating the street, walls, or their own “bodies,” or acting robotic in
movement, Project Syria made viewers comfortable with the truth of what they were witnessing.
I believe that the characters could have a strange appearance or behave somewhat awkwardly but

58
as long as they did not defy the rules of how our physical bodies generally behave in the world,
the sense of presence remained unbroken and the trust in the journalism was not betrayed.

Use of Force
Use of Force (2013) tells the story of the night 35-year-old Anastacio Hernandez Rojas
was beaten and tasered to death at the San Diego-Tijuana border by the United States Border
Patrol, one of more than a dozen migrants who have been killed by agents under questionable
circumstances in the past few years. Hernandez Rojas had been brought to the U.S. as a boy and
had been living for over twenty-seven years under the radar as an undocumented construction
worker. In late spring of 2010, he stole a bottle of tequila and a steak on Mother’s Day,
presumably for his wife, at a time when the soured economy in the United States had made it
extremely difficult to find labor, especially for undocumented workers. He had never been in
trouble with the law before, but when he was arrested, he was quickly deported. Just a few days
later, he tried unsuccessfully to sneak back into the country, and the border patrol officer who
caught him treated him roughly. Hernandez Rojas complained to a supervisor, but rather than
take action, the supervisor allowed the same offending officer to take him into the dark pen on
his own. Later the officer would claim Hernandez Rojas was trying to “resist,” although evidence
would emerge indicating that Hernandez Rojas remained handcuffed throughout his ordeal. As
the events escalated, at least fourteen officers became involved in his death. Two witnesses
recorded the events with their cell phones from separate vantage points, although the footage
would remain out of public view for over two years. While the San Diego coroner’s office
ultimately ruled Hernandez Rojas’ death a homicide and testified that his death was caused by

59
the injuries he sustained, no action was taken against the officers involved, although many years
later the family would receive a million dollar settlement from the federal government.
14

The decision to make the piece was made directly after seeing the powerful images and
the tragic audio captured in grainy video by witnesses Humberto Navarette and Ashley Young.
The border patrol had seized cell phones and cameras from multiple witnesses, yet Navarette and
Young had managed to surreptitiously leave the scene with their videos in hand. Investigative
reporter John Carlos Frey had tracked the two witnesses down and convinced them to make their
recordings publicly available. His report aired on PBS nearly two years after Hernandez Rojas’
death but it was picked up by only a handful of news organizations and there was little public
outcry.
15

Documentation photography of the original scene on which to base the digital models
was not possible, as the border patrol had demolished the bridge that overlooked the scene.
Construction around the site also prevented access to the iron fence outside of which witnesses
had filmed the beating of Hernandez Rojas. However, photographs were taken of streets,
sidewalks and buildings in the directly adjacent areas. Utilizing these photographs and a
collection of archival material obtained from news organizations and Google maps, models were
built primarily in 3D Studio Max in order to reconstruct the environment to correspond with the
original physical world setting as much as possible.

14
Cleve R. Wootson Jr., “Border agents beat an undocumented immigrant to death. The U.S. is paying his family $1
million,” The Washington Post, March 28, 2017, retrieved April 16, 2017.

15
I was made of aware of the material through a Twitter posting by the Latino news organization News Taco.

60

Using photographs to inform the recreation of Use of Force

At the same time body scanning procedures of characters were begun. Key witness
Ashley Young, who had captured footage from above the bridge, agreed to be facial scanned,
body scanned, facial motion-captured and body motion-captured. The concept here was that she
would recall the events of the evening through her body as much as through her words. It would
help ensure that the recreation would be personal and come directly from her. Navarette could
not be located and associates reported that he feared for his wellbeing and was keeping his
whereabouts hidden.
Young’s face was scanned at the Institute for Creative Technologies using their patented
light stage system, which provided the data for building a model with a true likeness. Her body
scan was produced by Icon Imaging, which provides similar scans for large budget Hollywood
special effects needs. The same Phasespace motion capture system that allows for tracking when
users wear the virtual reality goggles was also used to record Young’s body motion and facial

61
movements. Her voice was also recorded as she tried to speak and yell the same words she had
the night of event. In fact, she was specifically instructed to only say and do the things she
remembered doing that night and to re-enact them in the order she remembered them occurring.
The videos she captured that night were also used as guides.

Fig 5: Facial captures used to create a CG model of Ashley Young, a real witness to the events
depicted in Use of Force

Three other “look-alikes” were scanned as “stand-ins” for characters we could not access.
These included using a look-alike for bystander Navarette; the border officer who committed the
final and probably fatal tasing; and the victim himself. Models of all of the characters, as well as
skin and clothing textures, were created in Maya and the models were then given body and facial
rigs, i.e. a digital bone structure that could be animated. Other “bystander” characters came from
a pre-built library provided by AXYZ Design.
Elaborate motion capture was utilized to recreate the drama and action of the events.
Actors wearing body suits had to re-enact events as portrayed in both the videos and as described
in court documents. (Young had also donned a motion capture suit, to re-enact her own

62
recollections and her interviews provided additional detail used to direct the motion capture done
by actors.) All assets were assembled and programmed in Unity 3D and C# was used for coding
requirements. Audio from the real event was augmented with clips to support the surrounding
environments – cars passing, crickets, an occasional siren.
Participants experienced the piece wearing bespoke virtual reality goggles, designed with
130-degree field-of-view lenses and tracked through the Phasespace camera system. An HDMI
wireless transmitter was used so that participants could walk freely within the footprint of the
camera system without being tied to a computer. Later a virtual camera was added which
allowed participants the ability to film their own experience for one minute and retain a video of
that “in world/in game” footage. This served two experimental purposes: the first to make the
participant understand more deeply the experience of the real witnesses who were trying to
capture crucial evidence. The second was to offer a takeaway video that the participant could
post to their social media sites so that publics who had not actually donned the goggles could
learn about the original event.
16

Audience reaction has been consistently strong, with users reporting feeling the piece in
their “whole body” as opposed to just watching a scene in a film clip.
17
The photographs below
show how individuals tried to lean over the “edge of the bridge to watch more clearly the action
unfolding “below, even though no such edge actually existed in the physical world:

16
This turned out to be an extremely successful when Buzzfeed had its employees try the experience and their
posting received nearly a million views on You Tube as of this writing, with pages of commentary about race issues
in America. See: https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrislam/being-a-witness-in-virtual-reality

17
This was told to me by the reporter Chelsea Stark during the interview for a piece later published on Mashable.
http://mashable.com/2014/06/26/virtual-reality-memory/#8Mt1Sd8VmkqT

63

64
Figs 7, 8, 9: Viewers try to see “over” the virtual bridge while experiencing Use of Force

Reviews of the work were also very positive, including comments from Japan’s largest gaming
magazine that “this is what video game technology can offer to society, gut-wrenching, the most
shocking experience in my career” (Yoshimura, 2014). The piece also won the “Impact Award”
at Indiecade, the world’s largest independent games festival.
The questions raised by Use of Force when viewed through the “uncanny valley” lens are
multifold. In his original paper, Mori suggested a wooden hand was more acceptable than the
pink rubbery flesh of the then state-of-the-art fake limb. This has informed the now widely
accepted guiding principle of digital design that the scene would be more plausible if we toned
down the realism. However, we directly challenged this Mori-informed stance by attempting to
find ways in which to make the scene as realistic as possible in terms of the models’
presentation, their movement and their behavior.
Yet there is a clear distinction between reality and the virtual reconstruction in Use of
Force. Moreover, despite our attempts to imbue models with lifelike qualities, in no way did they
perfectly resemble their real world counterparts even though the high-end scanning provided
high quality models. Given the appropriate reactions of the audience, does this imply that these
models display just the right amount of lifelike characteristics so as to avoid evoking a sensation
of being “creeped out’ for the majority of the audience? I would argue that this not the point, and
that it is the strong audio and the fact that multiple characters are moving with baseline motions
captured from actual human movement which makes the action so dense and natural enough to
engage the audience. I use the word “enough” because the motion capture helps capture human
motion, but the digital files produced cannot be translated exactly to the digital character and

65
various amounts of hand touch-up are usually required, which can be extremely costly. In the
case of Use of Force, I did not have the budget for that extra detailing. However, the knowledge
that Use of Force is based on a true story may also perhaps prime the audience to understand that
the piece depicts a real moment.
18

Across the Line
Across the Line (2015) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW and the Sheffield
Film Festival in the first half of 2016. Made in collaboration with Planned Parenthood, an
organization that provides reproductive health centers across America, and 371 Productions, the
experience puts the audience on scene with anti-abortion extremists trying to intimidate patients.
The overarching goal of the content was to offer insight into the experience of young women
seeking sexual and reproductive health care by giving the audience an embodied experience. The
success of the piece is underscored not only by the multitude of positive press reviews,
19
but was
given a Social Impact Award by the U.S. organization Media Impact Funders.
The piece unfolds in two consecutive sections. The first was made with an array of eight
GoPro cameras designed to film in 360 degrees, and footage was captured inside and outside a
clinic while a protest against Planned Parenthood was underway. The second half, which will be
my focus, places the audience on a virtual street to face a barrage of vitriolic language – edited
from recordings collected from across the United States of actual verbal abuse experienced by
young women trying to enter clinics. Virtual characters, created from scanned models, were
animated with facial capture synced to the authentic sourced audio so that they scream at the user

18
There is another crucial distinction between Mori’s original thesis and a virtual reality experience. Mori’s
arguments were framed for the robotics community and more specifically around reactions to being situated in the
same physical location as the robot or robotic prosthesis.
19
A few examples: New York Magazine and MTV, Jan 22, 2016: A powerful depiction of the often toxic
environment that many patients must walk through; Verge; Huffington Post.

66
much like at the real event. Characters also turn and track the user as they pass so that the
delivery is pointed and direct.
With commercial headsets finally reaching the market, viewers were shown Across the
Line on three different types of goggles. The first, a Vive, was made in collaboration between
mobile phone maker HTC and gaming company Valve. This headset achieved what our
previously handmade goggles allowed users to do: walk around the scene in a one-to-one
correspondence with their movements in the natural world. The other two headsets, the Samsung
Gear VR and Google Cardboard, both use mobile phones and do not allow any movement aside
from head rotation in all directions. The user can spin his or her body in a circle, but their
translational movement is fixed so that the user cannot walk around. This means virtual
characters are reduced to screen dimensions and nothing is experienced in the life-sized manner
that the positional tracking of the Vive or our bespoke headsets allow.
More than 170 surveys were collected at the SXSW Interactive Festival where Across the
Line was shown. The reactions further support my thesis that the uncanny valley theory, heavily
dependent on appearance, becomes irrelevant in virtual reality. The Vive experience was
described repeatedly as “amazing,” with a reviewer from Yahoo writing, “The characters become
CGI, but are rendered relatively well; there is no uncanny valley when you’re being screamed at
and told you’re going to invoke God’s wrath.”
20
However, the Gear VR experience was viewed
as problematic, in that viewers wrote that the characters “feel cartoonish and that takes away
from the overall seriousness of subject matter.” What mattered, it seems, was whether the users
were able to engage with the material, i.e. able to walk around a scene, or whether they were
fixed in one position. This was despite the fact that in both experiences the characters and their

20
Jordan Zakarin made this comment in his review for Yahoo on the 2016 Sundance line-up .
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/sundance-report-improved-virtual-reality-films-041106240.html Taken from
the internet April 11, 2016

67
animations are exactly the same. In fact, the only crucial distinction was how the audience
corresponded to the characters either being able to move naturally down the line, akin to a real
world experience (using the Vive), or frozen in location while the camera moves from character
to character so they can “yell’ in turn at the user (on the Gear VR).
This suggests that when the sense of presence is violated, rather than fidelity to realism
(or lack thereof), the flow and connection to the narrative is compromised. These results
therefore deepen my proposition that user experience, rather than the appearance of characters, is
key to audience reaction.

Conclusion
I was offered this comment from a reporter: “With the VR you're creating, we get to
experience a point of view, or, better yet, a situatedness in a situation, which it is otherwise
highly unlikely we would have the opportunity to experience and reflect upon.” What creates
that feeling of “situatedness, the “duality of presence”? Certainly, it shares similarities to the
phenomenological immersion of watching a film, while still remaining as distinct an experience
as reading an engrossing novel is in comparison to seeing a movie. A more relevant description
might be the feelings of a daydream in which we feel both here and there as described by Gaston
Bachelard: “The daydream transports the dreamer outside the immediate world to a world that
bears the mark of infinity…However paradoxical this may seem, it is often this inner immensity
that gives real meaning to… expressions concerning the visible world…We can sense this with
intimate depth of being.” (1994, pg. 189 )
Surely that intimate immensity would be eviscerated by a stumble into the uncanny
valley. Yet, even with the clumsy graphics, these virtual reality pieces about real scenarios do not

68
destroy the daydream. Instead, I have found that many different levels of modeling and
animation are acceptable if the focus is on behavioral realism. It is not necessary to replace
virtual humans, even if they display a mediocre rendering, for lower fidelity but “friendlier,”
non-human characters.
Rather, the audience can be disconnected from the feeling of situatedness when the user
feels the automation is unacceptable. This can be a virtual human visibly intersecting with
physical objects including their own body; or a virtual human walking or moving in a robotic
way. Believable and appropriate audio also seems to be equally crucial in keeping a deep
connection alive, a standard also expected in traditional cinema, or television broadcasting. Most
importantly, allowing the viewer to engage with natural body movements, not just head
movements, helps eliminate disconnections with the narrative.
Also crucial to the sensation of the daydream, of being both here and there at the same
time, is a careful use of “embodied edits” to the narrative (see Chapter One or Weil and de la
Peña, 2008). The audience needs to be moved carefully along the narrative in a way that doesn’t
disrupt the physiology of their connected mind and body. Indeed, if there is an uncanny valley in
virtual reality, perhaps this might be the definition: the place one feels oneself to be when the
camera is moving but the body is still. When the audience feels present on scene, it means that
their entire bodies are along for the ride. That means if the camera is moving, the participant’s
eyes are telling the brain the body is moving. Yet the inner ear is saying something completely
different, claiming, correctly, that the body is still and that disconnect creates what is known in
the field as “sim sickness.” Surprisingly, an article called “Feeling Woozy? It May Be Cyber
Sickness” was published in The New York Times in the fall of 2015 (Murphy): “The more
realistic something is, the more likely you are going to get sick,” said Thomas Stoffregen,

69
professor of kinesiology at the University of Minnesota, who has done extant research on digital
motion sickness. “No one got sick playing Pac-Man.”
However, I would argue that it is camera movement, not realism, which is at the root of
the problem. By allowing a one-to-one match of a person’s physical movement to the virtual
imagery seen through allowing the audience member to walk around, the signals are unified,
thereby significantly reducing this type of discomfort. Until we can (or if we can) overcome the
conflicting signals sent to the brain by the eyes and the inner ear, the nausea caused by a camera
movement out of our personal control, means the daydream is subject to a horrible disruption.
It seems, therefore, that utilizing the arguments in Mori’s thesis on the uncanny valley to
frame virtual reality experiences is an error. Given the desire to offer audiences the greatest
sensation of presence, of situatedness, in the nonfiction narrative, I have found behavioral
realism to offer an alternative and successful focus. Indeed, this chapter has offered varied
examples, which suggest that the valley never needs to be crossed.

70
CHAPTER FOUR: EMBODIMENT, SPACE, AND PLACE

In this chapter, I frame some ideas around space and place in relation to embodiment in
virtual reality. If the virtual dimensions of a space, including a photogrammetric rendering of a
location, allow us an experience that makes it become a memorable place, then it parallels our
being in the physical world. Using some of my more recent work Greenland Melting, After
Solitary and Across the line, this chapter intends to begin an exploration into how these concepts
can be applied to immersive nonfiction.

And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place
for the first time. - T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets (Little Gidding), Collected Poems
(Borrowed from Heidegger and the Thinking of Place)

As noted in Chapter Three, in The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard’s uses the term
intimate immensity to refer to the reverie of a daydream, the touch of a poem, the sensation of
experiencing the vastness of forest, sea or desert (Bachelard, 1994, p. 184). His intimate
immensity echoes a sense of the sublime, a profound inner state, often brought about through the
spectacle of the physical world. This transcendent feeling offers a way of translating similar and
equally profound feelings evoked in immersive spatial virtual reality narratives, a feeling I have
described as duality of presence
21
. Further, an inquiry into space and place, the dichotomy
embraced by phenomenologists to replace the discarded Descartes dualism that privileged the
mind over the body, can also be used as a lens to examine the embodied rhetoric of movement in
“navigable space” (Murray, 2016, p. 6). I believe that it is in the poetics and power of space and
place, and the rhetoric of movement within space and place, that a new medium begins to form
where content can break away from the flat frame and our lived world becomes a new means of
expression.
A brief look at Heidegger can help frame and define this phenomenological approach.
For Heidegger, philosophizing with a focus on language is an insufficient approach to

21
“Duality of presence” is a term I have adopted to describe the sensation reported by users who have donned a
virtual reality headset and entered an experience: while they felt transported to a virtual “there,” they were never
denied the sensation of “being here” where they knew their physical body to be situated.

71
understanding how humans perceive. As Christopher McCann explains, “Signification, for
Heidegger, is something more primordial (and more general) than language—indeed, so much so
that if one takes one’s start in language one loses the meaning of signification in so far as it is the
latter which brings out the ontological character of being-in-the-world.” In fact, it is that
“being-in-the-world,” of total spatiality which underpins the phenomenological schema, with
Heidegger defining that spatiality as at once abolishing distance and bringing distance closer to
our selves. McCann continues, “It is quite typical of Heidegger’s procedure that a positive
structure (approaching something) should be rendered by a double negative (removing the
distance).” McCann, 1993 p.80)
Heidegger also considered how to define space in contrast to place. He wrote, “When
space is discovered non-circumspectively by just looking at it, the environmental regions get
neutralized to pure dimensions. Places…get reduced to a multiplicity of positions for random
things.” (ibid. p. 147). For Heidegger, space presupposes place. Indeed, writes Jeff Malpas in
Heidegger and the Thinking of Place (2012), “The idea of place, of topos, runs through the
thinking of Martin Heidegger almost from the very start. Although not always directly
thematized, sometimes apparently obscured, displaced even, by other concepts …it is impossible
to think with Heidegger unless one attunes oneself to Heidegger’s own attunement to
place…[and] Heidegger must also be counted as one of the principal founders of such a mode of
place-oriented thinking.” (Malpas, 2012, p.6)
Gaston Bachelard furthers Heidegger’s project in his Poetics of Space (1984), through an
approach he calls, “topoanalysis.” He says, “[Topoanalysis will] carry us through this systematic
study of the ‘space we love.’” (1984, p. xxxvi). Bachelard also writes, “Of course, thanks to the
house, a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit elaborate, if it has a

72
cellar and a garret, nooks and corridors, our memories have refuges that are all the more clearly
delineated. All our lives we come back to them in our daydreams… Topoanalysis, then would be
the systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate lives.” (ibid, p. 8) Thus, he begins
to signal his thinking on embodied memory and sensation.
However, Bachelard does not keep us locked away indoors. Instead, he employs the
rhetoric of prose and poetry to help his ideas on spatially topoanalyzing. He says, “George Sand,
dreaming beside a path of yellow sand, saw life flowing by. ‘What is more beautiful than a
road?’ she wrote. ‘It is the symbol and the image of an active varied life.’” (ibid. p. 11). Once
the road has been introduced, Bachelard’s house is no longer confined by physical world
materials of wood or stone. “Sometimes the house grows and spreads so that, in order to live in
it, greater elasticity of daydreaming, a daydream that is less clearly outlined, [is] needed.” Again,
and as he does throughout the book, Bachelard seeks other authors to describe a
phenomenological narrative, quoting Georges Spyridaki: “‘My house is diaphanous, but it is not
of glass. It is more of the nature of vapor. Its walls contract and expand as I desire. At times, I
draw them close about me like protective armor… But at others, I let the walls of my house
blossom out in their own space, which is infinitely extensible...’” For Bachelard, “Spyridaki’s
house breathes. First it is a coat of armor, then it extends ad infinitum, which amounts to saying
that we live in an alternate security and adventure. It is both cell and world. Here, geometry is
transcended.” (ibid. p. 51) The walls have now fully given way to both the immense and the
intimate: “Thus, an immense cosmic house is a potential of every dream of houses. Winds
radiate from its center and gulls fly from its windows. A house that is as dynamic as this allows
the poet to inhabit the universe. Or to put it differently, the universe comes to inhabit his house.”
(ibid, p. 51)

73
For Bachelard, topoanalysis and the idea of narrative space is analogous to the drama of
the stage. He says, “In the theater of the past that is constituted by memory, the stage setting
maintains the characters in their dominant roles. At times we think we know ourselves in time,
when all we know is a sequence of fixations in the spaces of the being’s stability - a being who
does not want to melt away, and who, even in the past, when he sets out in search of things past,
wants time to “suspend” its flight. In its countless alveoli space contains compressed time. That
is what space is for.” (ibid, p. 8) We know ourselves through the spaces viewed and visited by
the ghosts of our own stage, which, for Bachelard is a material inhabited, intimate space. As he
writes, “Only phenomenology - that is to say, consideration of the onset of the image in an
individual consciousness - can help us to restore the subjectivity of images and to measure their
fullness, their strength and their transsubjectivity.” (ibid, p. xix).
The stage, both as Bachelard describes it and in in more literal demarcation of the
moments of our lived world, can offer a framework for creating the embodied story. As humans
bounded by a physical body, our experiences are limited to where that body resides at any given
moment. Since our bodies cannot zoom in or pan across or track, the spatial narrative should
not discard our flesh. Instead, the story should occur around our bodies, where we have always
connected to the moments of our personal stories, where we transcend our subjectivity into
something more described by Bachelard as transsubjectivity.
Even when we understand the stage as designed to be diaphanous, we do not lose our
bodies to the vista. Romantic era artist and physiologist Carl Gustav Carus wrote that the art of
landscape “represent[s] a certain mood of the inner life (meaning) by emulating a corresponding
mood of the life of nature (truth.)” (Carus, 1831, p.41) Even when Bachelard describes the
forest, the desert and the landscape, he always returns to embodiment. He says, “If we could

74
analyze impressions and images of immensity, or what immensity contributes to an image, we
should soon enter into a region of the purest sort of phenomenology - a phenomenology without
phenomena; or, stated less paradoxically, one that, in order to know the productive flow of
images, need not wait for the phenomena of the imagination to take form and become stabilized
in completed images.” (ibid, p.184)
In his own work on space and place, philosopher Michel de Certeau adopts a similar
dreamy phenomenology in The Practice of Everyday Life (1984), but he takes us away from the
beatific landscape and draws us deep into the nature of being embodied in the theatre of the city.
He says, “…[A]fter having compared pedestrian processes to linguistic formations, we can bring
them back down in the direction of oneiric figuration, or at least discover on that other side what,
in a spatial practice, is inseparable from the dreamed place. To walk is to lack a place. It is the
indefinite process of being absent and in search of a proper.” (de Certeau, 1988, p.103)
De Certeau also feels a need to distinguish "space" from "place." He writes that "a place
is the order (of whatever kind) in accord with which elements are distributed in relationships of
coexistence," making a place "an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies an
indication of stability." (ibid. p. 117). In contrast, he writes, "space is composed of intersections
of mobile elements… [S]pace is a practiced place" (ibid, p. 117) made up of “ensemble of
procedures” (ibid, p. 43) De Certeau noted that renowned phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty
“distinguished ‘geometrical space’” (de Certeau’s “place) from “’anthropological space’,” and
tried to underscore the differences with the idea that “’space is existential’ and ‘existence is
spatial.’” That is, however space exists, our existence only becomes meaningful by our bodies
and their movements in that space.
It is that movement that de Certeau assigns its own rhetoric:

75
The art of ‘turning’ phrases finds an equivalent of composing a path
(tourner un parcours). Like ordinary language, this art implies and
combines styles and uses. Style specifies ‘a linguistic structure that
manifests on the symbolic level… an individual’s fundamental way of
being in the world… If it is true that the forests of gestures are manifest in
the streets, their movement cannot be captured in a picture, nor can the
meaning of their movements be circumscribed in a text. Their rhetorical
transplantation carries away and displaces the analytical, coherent proper
meanings of urbanism…; it constitutes a “’wandering of the semantic.’
(ibid., p. 102)

He later continues, “Without going back to ancient times, we can say that since Kant every
theoretical effort has had to give a more or less direct explanation of its relationship to this non-
discursive activity, to this immense “remainder” constituted by the part of human experience that
has not been tamed and symbolized in language.” (italics mine, ibid. p. 612)
If, for de Certeau, movement itself is rhetoric, where does the body finds itself when that
rhetoric become digital and that experience of the lived world fractures into a duality of
presence? The body’s reaction to virtual place is evident in two virtual reality pieces created for
the Sony PlayStation. In one, users were put in an underwater cage which comes under attack by
a great white shark. The visceral sensations were so extreme, many visitors to my studio were
unable to complete the experience. Similarly, another piece required viewers to walk a digitally
reconstructed tightrope strung between the World Trade Center Twin Towers, recreating
Philippe Petit’s extraordinary feat in 1974. The user became like the Icarus of de Certeau (ibid,
p. 117) and despite knowing their physical body remained in their ordinary world, the intensity
of the sensation of attempting to cross between buildings at more than hundred stories high was
too much for many players to bear.
Why are we struck with fear when walking (perhaps tiptoeing) across a faux tightrope
stretching across the digitally reconstructed Twin Towers while wearing virtual reality goggles?
In her book Screens: Viewing Media Installation Art: 30 (Electronic Mediations), Kate

76
Mondlach tries to address both the potential and experience of the duality and even a trinity of
presence, albeit with a focus on the observation of art. She writes:
The consequences for media art spectatorship are especially noteworthy:
there are subjective effects to being in many places simultaneously. Art
and media historian Oliver Grau specifically emphasizes the computer
screen’s role in this transition. He argues that telepresence and teleaction
enable the user to be present in three places at the same time: “(a) in the
spatiotemporal location determined by the user’s body; (b) by means of
teleperception in the simulated, virtual image space; and (c) by means of
teleaction in the place where, for example, a robot is situated, directed by
one’s own movements and providing orientation through its sensors.
(Mondlach, 2010, loc. 1583, Kindle)

Mondlach renders her discussion less useful when she chooses to overlay her observation
of these potential fractured/coherent identities with judgement: “What I’d like to emphasize here,
however, is how the computer screen’s new connective possibilities further a tension of
spectatorship considered in the previous chapter: the tug-of-war between being “both here and
there”—psychologically and physically invested simultaneously in the physical gallery space and
in screen spaces—and being “neither here nor there”—being overcome by so many screen-
reliant spaces as to be effectively prevented from being consciously present in any of them.”
(ibid, loc. 1575) In fact, my work clearly disputes this assessment, finding instead that the
duality does not necessarily deprive the user of being consciously present. Instead, we can begin
to consider what sort of techniques are effective to create a spatial narrative in which “users are
more likely to behave as they “would when encountering a ‘real’ place in person” as well as a
“real person” presented spatially
22
.

22
Monlach uses media and architectural historian William J. Mitchell to identify the nature of persistent virtual
environments, saying they, “have many characteristics of successful brick-and-mortar architecture; that is, they
‘become increasingly familiar with repeated visits; seem to possess power to evoke memories of previous events
that took place there [and] change and grow over time.’ In the process of engaging such spaces, explains Mitchell,
users are more likely to behave as they would when encountering a ‘real’ place in person.” (ibid., loc. 1688 – 1694)

77
Indeed, this “different kind of embodiment” that Richardson and Harpers wrote about
(2001), in many ways offers an immersion that overlays digitally created imagery onto our
mental perceptions of our physical bodies, where they are situated and how they encounter. This
allows us to apply a kind of “biological plasticity” Clark ascribes to our soft selves discussed in
Chapter Two. Framed by ideas discussed earlier on the phenomenology of the daydream and the
connection between movement and rhetoric, we dispute Mondlach by considering overwhelming
feelings of presence for audiences who step inside the story in three virtual reality pieces that I
have directed: After Solitary, Greenland Melting and Across the Line.
After Solitary was built in collaboration with PBS Frontline, and its puts the user inside a
photoreal reconstruction of a real solitary confinement cell captured at a prison in Maine. Using
videogrammetry, a former inmate, Kenny, who had spent seven years in the cell was filmed from
all angles using multiple cameras, and the footage was algorithmically stitched together to give
the illusion of the figure standing next to the viewer as a video-real hologram. Using de
Certeau’s definition, the place the audience experienced was the prison cell wherein Kenny
occupied the space, detailing how it severely affected him to the degree in which he pulled all the
hair out from one side of his body including his eyelashes and also cut himself multiple times.
(Multiple long, white scars are evident across both arms.) The second piece, Greenland Melting
allows users to witness climate change firsthand, experiencing the scale of the problem through a
digital recreation of an iceberg retreat and videogrammetry of NASA scientists demonstrating
experiments, and underwater ocean warming. In this case, the places were multiple, and the

78
audience were embodied participants in the spatial graphics that defined the spaces.

Still from virtual reality experience After Solitary
Media Impact Project at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center conducted a study to
analyze the effectiveness of the pieces. Although both were developed for volumetric, fully
spatialized, navigable, room-scale VR, they were adapted for use in other formats (including
traditional video, 360 video, and Immersive 360 video). Participants were randomly assigned to
experience the story in navigable VR or in the other comparison groups. They were given a pre-
and post-survey to ask about their participant experience as well as to measure changes in
knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention based on their experience. Participants in After
Solitary reported that the experience helped them gain a personal perspective on Kenny’s
physical state and emotional journey. Participants in Greenland Melting reported that virtual
space helped demonstrate key concepts, especially by using time lapse and granting access to
hard-to-reach locales. The researchers report:
VR provided an outstanding immersive experience, but an imperfect knowledge
acquisition environment. Participants were fully engaged in exploring their

79
environment—which came with a tradeoff. Compared to the same experiences on other
platforms, participants remembered details less accurately after a Room-scale VR
experience and some commented on “missing” details in the content. The presence of a
guide or central character gave participants context for the physical experience and
information in After Solitary and Greenland Melting. Both Kenny and the scientists
offered moments of connection that made the virtual experiences’ unique features of
sensory immersion, embodiment, and agency stand out…. Our findings support the
potential for VR journalism to capture an audience’s attention, and encourage attitude
and behavior change, to a greater extent than content produced for other platforms. (See
Media Impact Partner Findings, Appendix, p. 70)

In fact, the researchers found that the engagement with their bodies caused participants to
worry they weren’t looking in the right place and the facts that were offered by the narrator were
subsumed by the experience of full immersion. In a seeming ultimate contradiction of Descartes,
the body was privileged over the brain and the spectacle was more profound than the proffered
facts. Since most participants were new to the medium, we still don’t know whether those facts
might be more readily retained if virtual reality exposure was more frequent and less novel.
However, overall the story was much more deeply understood. As Bachelard notes, Baudelaire
wrote in his Journaux intimes that, “In certain almost supernatural inner states, the depth of life
is entirely revealed in the spectacle, however ordinary, that we have before our eyes, and which

80
becomes a symbol of it.” (Bachelard, 1984, p. 192)

Still from Greenland that was captured to inform the photogrammetry recreation
A third piece, Across The Line, which was discussed at Chapter Four, uses audio from
actual events to compel the audience to experience the harsh language that is often screamed at
young women trying to enter health clinics that provide abortions. Now the place becomes
irrelevant as it has generic appearance common to many American towns. Rather the practices
in the space are what provide the spatial narrative, with digitally-reconstructed protesters
subjecting the embodied viewers to authentic recordings of vitriolic shouting as they try to
“cross” to the safety of the clinic entrance.
An independent study was conducted among individuals who were shown the piece and
reported holding anti-abortion views. The results found that not only did they think anti-abortion
activists had created the virtual reality piece, but they reacted extremely negatively to what they
witnessed firsthand: Even if they disagreed with the procedure of abortion, they agreed that

81
young women should not be treated with such extreme aggression and indicated a willingness to
vote for legislature that would limit protester access. A second study found that experiencing
Across The Line was associated with attitudinal change toward abortion and abortion clinic
access. The most pronounced shifts were increased agreement that abortion should be safe and
legal. There was also decreased acceptance of protest in front of abortion clinics and increased
willingness to spread the word about bullying and intimidation in front of clinics. Most
importantly, those who had the largest change in their attitudes were more likely moderate to
slightly conservative.
These studies make it clear that all three pieces are effective examples of embodied
digital rhetoric and that the spatial narrative was effective and pronounced. Yet as the USC
researchers note, “The platform alone is not a magic bullet—it has unique affordances which,
combined with effective storytelling and appropriate choice of subject matter, had an impact on a
receptive audience.” Still, Janet Murray points out, “[t]he new digital environments are
characterized by their power to represent navigable space. Linear media such as books and films
can portray space, either by verbal description or image, but only digital environments can
present space that we can move through.” (Murray, 2016, p. 79) All three of these pieces indeed
take their power from allowing the viewer embodied access to a place in order to experience the
story of the space. Of course, one must also recognize this is a nascent medium. Murray also
offers context:
Gutenberg invented the printing press—but not the book as we know it. Books printed
before 1501 are called incunabula; the word is derived from the Latin for swaddling
clothes and is used to indicate that these books are the work of a technology still in its
infancy. It took fifty years of experimentation and more to establish such conventions as
legible typefaces and proof sheet corrections; page numbering and paragraphing; and title
pages, prefaces, and chapter divisions, which together made the published book a
coherent means of communication. (ibid. p. 28)

82
This is not to say that some cinematic techniques would not be useful. For example, in
Greenland Melting, the sheer scale of the melting iceberg and the vastness above and below the
water are effective parts of phenomenological experience of the spatial narrative. This compares
favorably to Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord’s writing on how size matters. They say,
“When we watch IMAX, which frequently features images of expansive nature, the images take
on their fullest meaning in their enormity and enveloping size. Watching such images necessarily
involves viewers in a subordinate relation, in which we are reminded of our relatively minuscule
status. As such, we are submitting to the disorder and disproportion presented by any given
image, enlarged to eight stories. The gigantic image invites us into its exteriority, its gesture
outward to the rest of the world. It is akin to the grand gestures of statehood, monumentalism,
and the awe of exploring the unknown.35 The gigantic is not about the individual; it is always
beyond this.” (2008, Kindle loc. 1716-1724) Indeed, without the ability to compel the viewer to
experience a close up, size becomes increasing relevant in considering the practice of creating
virtual spaces.
In conclusion, the phenomenological considerations of space and place offer a way to
frame spatial narrative, the rhetoric of movement and duality of presence in virtual reality
experiences. Bachelard’s topoanalysis of the individual experience of one’s house, the practice
of space and the meaning of place, as well as the vista of the spectacle, all become important
tools when considering embodiment in nongaming storytelling with navigable space. De Certeau
privileges the body when considering the stories within place. Finally, we must always take the
“readers response” into consideration. Janet Murray sums it up this way: “As the literary
theorists known as the “reader response” school have long argued, the act of reading is far from
passive: we construct alternate narratives as we go along, we cast actors or people we know into

83
the roles of the characters, we perform the voices of the characters in our heads, we adjust the
emphasis of the story to suit our interests, and we assemble the story into the cognitive schemata
that make up our own systems of knowledge and belief. … We bring our own cognitive, cultural,
and psychological templates to every story as we assess the characters and anticipate the way the
story is likely to go.”
23
(ibid, p. 110) From here, the truly personal, intimate immensity will
emanate: we will situate and encounter in the same intermediated, inextricable Heideggerian
summation of removing the distance and always approaching the something that is.

23
As I have noted in Chapter Two, viewer suggested that digital character shad scarred knees or needle marks
because of their own experience of the world was brought to bear in the virtual narrative.

84
CHAPTER FIVE: PHYSICAL WORLD NEWS IN VIRTUAL SPACES: REPRESENTATION
AND EMBODIMENT IN IMMERSIVE NONFICTION

This chapter discusses some of the ethical concerns that have been raised about
immersive journalism, and tries to reframe the discussion. It also briefly discusses news games
and differentiates between the two digital approaches, using and updating material originally
published in a Media Fields Journal 2011 piece called “Physical World News in Virtual
Spaces.”

Given that the early reactions to the idea of immersive journalism were quite strong and
often very negative, I have repeatedly found myself defending the validity of the medium and
dispelling fears that news stories offering subjective experience are in some way unethical. Even
though traditional journalism organizations - New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, and
others – have now slowly began to adopt the medium, this issue did not disappear. For example,
a PBS Frontline report on virtual reality best practices, which I co-authored, explicitly focused
on the veracity of the subjective experience and concerns over digital recreation because the
news organization felt these were imperative subjects to tackle.
As far as I am concerned, the fixation that there is an inherent impartiality due to
subjective feelings of embodiment that are inherent in virtual reality constructs represents a
naivete about the technology and spotlights the wrong questions. Instead, I believe the focus
should be on how best to apply current journalism best practices to this new embodied form. For
example, decisions on how much graphic or visually disturbing two-dimensional content to show
audiences are made every day. Now we need to consider similar ethical guidelines to impending
questions such as whether we will let people “step over” the bodies in reporting about war or at
an event with major casualties. After all, every mobile smartphone is now constructed with dual
cameras which makes taking pictures and video with depth an expected use case for the
technology in the future.

85
Moreover, when considering any nonfiction narrative, both documentary and news stories
purport to represent some version of reality. In John Grierson’s famous definition of
documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality,” it is the term “creative” that most
fundamentally describes the creator’s relationship to the content (Grierson, 1966, p.147).

Whether that “creative” is boiled down in a short news pieces or depicted at length in a
documentary film, there is an attempt to adhere to some version of what the creator considers to
be truth. All the formats portray the creator’s view of reality and act as “knowledge--- producing
and communicative practice[s].” (Ekstrom, 2002, p. 261).

This shared goal binds the genres of
news, documentary and immersive journalism when considering how the portrayal of nonfiction
whether it be created in virtual reality platforms or more traditional formats like film, video,
photographs, or text.
In fact, the debate around whether the creator of any nonfiction can ever meaningfully
represent truth is decades old. Arguments range from a sense that objectivity can be
“operationalized,”

to a belief that “truth and objectivity claims of new journalism [are]
totalitarian struggles in an ongoing power struggle,” (Westerståhl, 2008, p. 10) a truth which
Dirk Eitzen suggests should always be measured by the question, “Might it be lying?” (Eitzen,
1995, p. 89).

One can also argue that recent attempts to tell both sides have descended into a
sort of tyranny of objectivity that seems to deter critical thinking about the facts presented by
either side.
Certainly raw video can offer an extraordinary window onto events, but edits in the
footage and the selection process of interviewees are just two obvious ways that the narrative can
be manipulated to merely appear to present events fairly. In comparing two Danish
documentaries critical of the pesticide company, Cheminova, Olesen claims that even

86
“investigative journalism is a political act within the boundaries of professional journalistic
standards.” (Oleson, 2008, p. 247)

In fact, columns like the one run by the Los Angeles Times
from 1936---1941, which supported social eugenics, illustrate the fallacy that journalism has ever
been editorially sophisticated enough to work outside of the influences of culture.
The difficulty of holding nonfiction to some sort of clearly delineated standard also
becomes clear when examining Walter Cronkite’s documentary series You Are There (1953---
1957). Cronkite is still considered one of the United States’ most reputable journalists and
someone who would have adhered to the asserted necessary journalistic tenets of “truthfulness,
accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability.”
24
However, the You Are
There series exposes the weaknesses in any claim of having achieved those tenets, instead
reflecting the era in American history in which it was created. For example, his piece on the
Alamo addresses the American view on the battle, giving little of the Mexican perspective about
the United States’ annexation of Mexican territory that would have made the presentation more
balanced.
25

I believe virtual reality constructs should be considered in the same light as any
documentary or news report, with the relevant factor being transparency on who might be the
sources and the provenance of any associated research material used to support the factual
underpinnings. Transparency is a relatively recently touted solution among leaders in the field,
such as Geneva Overholser, the former editor of the Des Moines Register, who later oversaw
news and documentary film education at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and

24
“Statement of Principles." American Society of News Editors (ASNE). Accessed October 2, 2010.

25
When I have shown a clip of this piece to audiences, they often laugh out loud at the simplicity in Cronkite’s
presentation.

87
Journalism. The idea is to shift the culture away from the idea that the individual journalist can
act as a frictionless pipe, replacing it instead with a necessary landscape in which the news report
offers transparency: Where does the information come from? Who are the sources? How was
the information obtained? Such openness is intended to help the audience judge for themselves
whether the story and the analysis are valid and trustworthy especially crucial at a time when
authority figures like the president of the United States are undermining the authenticity of the
news media. Writes the Committee to Protect Journalists, President Donald Trump’s “rhetoric--
increasingly targeting swaths of the press--appears to be escalating, first from the introduction of
‘fake news’ to ‘opposition party’ and his use of ‘enemy of the people.’” (CPJ, 2019)
26
(The fake
news issue is one which I will not take up here as it would shift focus from immersive journalism
as a new form of embodied news to an investigation into demise of trust in news media and the
manipulation of social media sites for spreading disinformation, an important but very separate
issue.)
27

The science behind our connection to our virtual bodies is uncharted ground for
journalists and documentary filmmakers. They may understand the compelling nature of a good
story and have always tried to make their audience relate to the narrative, but creating that
relationship through dimensional experience is a unique challenge. The feelings that may be
generated through a connection that shares similarities to being in one’s real body can create
confusion on how to approach the objectivity/subjectivity debate. Answering Eitzen’s question
“Might it be lying?” with an automatic “yes!” simply because the nonfiction exists in virtual
reality would be a mistake. It here that most of the current ethical questions flounder, with their

26
https://cpj.org/blog/2019/01/trump-twitter-press-fake-news-enemy-people.php Accessed on February 22, 2019
27
For more information see the Aspen Institute and Knight Foundation’s report “Crisis in Democracy: Renewing
Trust in America.” I was a member of the commission. https://knightfoundation.org/reports/crisis-in-democracy-
renewing-trust-in-america Accessed on May 17, 2019

88
misguided concerns over the subjective experience of the situated body instead of considering
responsive ways to fact check and create transparency around this new form of “creative
actuality.”
There is also the uncharted territory of how to cover or write about the way physical news
spills over into virtual spaces. For example, within days of the Israeli incursion into Gaza in
2008, Doron Friedman, from the Advanced Virtuality Lab at Samy Ofer School of
Communications IDC Herliza, logged onto Second Life’s virtual Tel Aviv to test a new graphics
card. He was immediately targeted by the shouts of protesters and the sounds of breaking glass
as if bottles were being thrown at him. Had Friedman not filmed his experience using
machinima, the documentation of his experience would not exist.
28

Moreover, his digital
representation was under threat and although he knew he could not physically be assaulted he
says, “It was powerful in the sense that there was definitely the feeling that there were people
there who hate you and they are expressing their hate in a nonverbal way.” Interestingly, he was
able to ultimately converse with several protesters, something that would have been extremely
unlikely in the physical world and a moment worthy of documentation.
Immersive nonfiction and immersive journalism are often compared to news or
documentary games because the pieces are typically set in what has been previously solely the
terrain of gaming platforms , relying on computer generated game engine development.
However, there are a number of distinctions, particularly to newsgames, in that games work best
as systems. Games are better at reproducing the conditions under which events unfold rather than
outlining the details of the events themselves. That means linear narrative structures or
presentation of specific facts, which can be key to chronicling a particular nonfiction story, do

28
See “Gaza Protest in SL --- conflict resolution in virtual worlds?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFWZgD---To
Accessed on November 13, 2010

89
not work as well with a gaming setup. Players typically advance through the game by passing
“levels” that do not necessarily relate to the inherently unchangeable nature of an unfolding
nonfiction narrative (no matter from whose perspective it has been constructed.) There are a
number of good examples: The Uber Game
29
is a Financial Times offering that allows players an
insight to the challenges of making ends meet in the “gig economy;” Chair the Fed
30
lets players
investigate the machinations of federal money policy; and Think Military Strikes Could Stop
North Korea? Try It and See,
31
appeared in the New York Times opinion section. Many
newsgames do not attempt to delineate any individual case in particular, and what happens to the
player is based on his/her choices rather than reflecting a physical world event that have already
transpired. Also, in contrast to immersive nonfiction, there is no virtual embodiment.
32

The difference between immersive nonfiction and documentary games, however, is more
difficult to tease out, especially given that there has yet to be a body of research to help
determine what constitutes a news game versus a documentary game and the terms are still
considered fairly interchangeable. In Tracy Fullerton’s piece on documentary games, she offers a
number of examples of games based on specific events: Pearl Harbor, a reenactment of John
Kerry’s Vietnam Swift boat tour of duty, a recreation of real Iraqi war scenario in which Saddam
Hussein’s sons were killed, or as a 9/11 victim (Fullerton, 2008.) As Keith Halper, CEO of
KUMA games, notes: “Games allow us to be who we are not, to do what we cannot, to be in
places and times we cannot go… Through entertainment and action, we can educate in novel and
powerful ways.”
33

However, none of these examples have linear narratives that strictly hew to

29
https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/ Accessed May 17, 2019
30
https://sffed-education.org/chairthefed/ Accessed May 17, 2019
31
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/24/opinion/north-korea-trump-military-strikes.html Accessed May
17, 2019
32
For an excellent list of newsgames see https://robinkwong.com/newsgames-list/ Accessed on 05/17/2019
33
Keith Halper, “Kuma Games Press Release.” http://www.kumagames.com/press Accessed on 10/10/2011

90
physical world facts―the player does not necessarily kill Kennedy or follow the exact
documented path of any particular victim of 9/11. Even the Swift boat exercise offers a player
variations on the story.
I believe this final point may be key to clarifying the difference between immersive
journalism and news or documentary games. The embodied experience in an immersive
journalism piece has an unchangeable narrative that may allow queries to the environment but
without altering the story trajectory. This is more in keeping with traditional journalistic or
documentary practice. In fact, when I initially created Hunger in Los Angeles, I put “triggers” on
the virtual character who was acting as the stand in for the woman running the food bank line.
When she was approached by viewers, she turned to yell at them using a variety of audio clips
taken from her actual responses to those in the line on the actual day. After showing the piece a
few times, I removed this code as it felt as if I was manipulating the viewer into assuming they
were part of the story and that their actions could change the timeline of a real world event.
However, I feel as if this remains unexplored territory as news and documentaries are, of course,
edited forms of a story and b-roll unrelated to an actual incident is often required. While these
are accepted forms of “creative actuality,” their parallel in immersive journalism is still coming
into view.
Ultimately, I believe that confusing a viewer’s subjective experience with the negative
type of subjectivity associated with flawed journalism would be an error. Such an argument is as
specious as the claim that true objectivity currently exists or has ever existed in traditional
documentary films or news presentations. While embodiment offers what may be a new way to
encounter the nonfiction story, it in itself does not eradicate the meaningful representation of
facts present in a quality news story. Instead, current calls for better transparency in all

91
nonfiction narratives are more relevant and should be the standard upon which criticisms of
immersive experiences are based.

92
CONCLUSION

Our world is not flat. Depicting that world as it lived – dimensional, spatial, embodied –
was my motivation for creating immersive journalism. I conceived of the idea after years of
using and ultimately rejecting flat media for news production because print and film literally lack
depth and can never convey the feeling of being a witness on scene, a privilege previously
reserved for the journalist alone. The immersive journalism pieces I have created over the past
decade illustrate how this new medium can be used to successful transform physical world
stories into volumetric verité material. The audience response measured anecdotally, through
studies, and by positive worldwide reception make it clear that this medium is becoming an
effective new journalism practice.
34

As my practice has grown, the ideas that I delineate in this dissertation have held their
relevancy. It has surprised for me – I expected that as the technology developed, my earliest
ideas would become hackneyed and tired. Instead, they continue to offer a framework for
exploring the field and creating embodied content.
In Chapter One, I discuss the embodied edit and spatial narrative. The embodied edit
exploits the teleport, the movement of the viewer to a different virtual and redefines it as a
semantic link in a narrative. Embodied edits describe the experience of being abruptly
transported, teleported, from one (virtual) location to another under the control of the content
creator. It allows for adherence to a timeline and for a coherent narrative to unfold through
virtual environment changes. At that point, specific elements can be triggered with or without
interactivity to complete the story elements.

34
The following appendices include a number of those studies as well as primary material on audience response

93
I also discuss spatial narrative, a term that has previously been investigated in terms of
three-dimensional storytelling and historical art work
35
. However, I believe the idea of a spatial
narrative will becomes ever more germane and we will soon distinguish content as either
“spatial, volumetric” or “flat.” Spatial, volumetric narratives require a different mindset for
creators. They must be cognizant that the story will unfold all around the viewer, always
considering what changes ensue when the body moves through the story (rather than sitting as a
passive observer), even with triggers designed to change the action. Many cinematic techniques
must also be discarded: in a spatial narrative, the closeup or other forced perspectives track the
way we experience the physical world – how often should we really be inches from someone’s
face? What will the embodied story allow when we take such an intimate proximity?
In Chapter Two, I explore rhetoric, or a persuasive argument or point of view, in an
embodied, three-dimensional form. I call this embodied digital rhetoric and consider the natural
way in which we our bodies are along for the ride in any story, perhaps currently best understood
by imaging how tense we become when watching a suspenseful movie or how our whole body
will jump at a scary or surprising scene. Now we have to extend that sensation to one that
includes the potential for movement within the narrative, and how that might affect the
persuasiveness of a story. In particular, I try to address the case presented in a nonfiction
argument and what it means to have the whole body along for the ride.
In Chapter Three, I explore behavioral realism versus character fidelity and why I have
found that the way digital characters move and how they interact with their virtual environments
are much more important than fidelity. While I continue to push for higher fidelity in capture
and display for humans, this offers guidelines for low cost construction of nonfiction stories. My
pieces challenge the notion of uncanny valley in the virtual environment as being tied to the look

35
See Manovich (2001) and Murray, (1997.)

94
of a character since the embodied experience literally creates a different lens in which the whole
body senses the story, albeit without haptic input.
This chapter also discuss the term “duality of presence,” which I use to define the whole-
body sensation of being in two places at the same time. I have witnessed firsthand literally
thousands of viewers describe feeling present both in the place their bodies were physically
situated and where they felt themselves to be virtually – the recreated environment experienced
through the headset. I say “experienced” rather than just displayed, because audio can be crucial
in creating a passage into the other world story. I learned this early on with our project Ipsress,
described in our paper “Immersive Journalism: Immersive Virtual Reality for the First-Person
Experience of News:” I had sent an audio file meant to sound muffled as if it was coming
through the wall from another room from Los Angeles to the team in Barcelona. However,
initially the binaural audio was placed as if it was in the “same room” as the participants. The
lack of authenticity in the audio quality was so distracting that participants were disconnected
from the visuals. Once I arrived in Barcelona and was able to address the problem, we had the
successful reactions that led to the results described in the paper.
In Chapter Four, I begin an investigation into how thinking about space and place might
inform immersive content creation. Photogrammetry libraries are just beginning to become
accessible, offering spaces that are represented in their true dimension. These include locations
that have now been demolished such as Palmyra, whose three-dimensional photographic likeness
affords some semblance, when wearing a headset, of what it was like to walk around a storied
historic place before it was destroyed. These photogrammetry environments and objects lack
story, however. Their assembly into a virtual experience will give resonance to their otherwise
lifeless digital form, and the space presupposed by Heidegger can now become a place.

95
For example, as photogrammetry of iconic buildings such as the United States Supreme
Court become available for use, breaking stories on new rulings will be depicted using the
dimensional model of the inside the courthouse, typically off limits when court is in session, or
outside on the steps. Similarly, the iron bars at the U.S./Mexico border will not require repeated
recreation but rather, as a dimensional model of that specific space, will offer an opportunity to
tell a multitude of stories related to the location that makes the border a place. While licensing
fees are likely to become an issue
36
, currently it is much cheaper or faster to purchase or license a
photogrammetry model than it is to make create one. However, there are a considerable number
of free libraries out there, giving creators a unique opportunity to show rather than just tell a
story. Finally, as every smartphone has the potential to capture the world with dimension, the
transition into a public acceptance and ultimately a standardized expectation that media should
be experienced as spatial and three dimensional is well underway. The spaces of our world will
become a myriad of places constructed by storytellers.
In Chapter Five, I discuss the confusion over how to frame ethical questions that arise
with this embodied new medium. As I say in that chapter, “answering Eitzen’s ‘Might it be
lying?’ with an automatic ‘yes!’ simply because the nonfiction exists in virtual reality would be a
mistake.” In fact, questioning whether it might be lying offers a suitable mindset when
considering all news stories, although trusted new sources can offer some reliability and are
likely to require less verification. Unfortunately, most of the current ethical questions about
creating news in virtual reality focus on a misguided concern over the subjective experience of
the situated body instead of examining responsive ways to fact check and create transparency
around this new form of “creative actuality” (Grierson, 1966, p.147).

36
On Sketchfab, the cost of a photogrammetry model of Notre Dame quickly shot up to $500 after the fire destroyed
much of the structure

96
There are other issues that we have barely begun to discover. For example, in the creation
of After Solitary and Greenland Melting, interview subjects were brought to a greenscreen stage
in Los Angeles to capture them with videogrammetry in which multiple cameras film the subject
from every angle and the footage is then algorithmically stitched together to create a character
with volume. However, what the interview subject wore while being filmed became an issue –
what was ethical for them to wear? Would we trick the audience into thinking the subjects were
captured on scene when they were actually recorded thousands of miles away from the Maine
prison or Greenland’s glaciers? With After Solitary, the answer was relatively easy – we put our
subject Kenny in red shorts and a shirt instead of prison garb so that no one could say we are
pretending he was filmed in the solitary cell even though the piece feels like you are in that
confinement space with him. But the photogrammetry environments of Greenland were icy and
cold, and we had to choose clothing that was believable for the environment without putting the
scientists in deep winter garb. Even more problematic was the fact that one of the NASA
scientists insisted on being filmed in same flight suit he always wore on his NASA research
plane. Wouldn’t that make the audience assume his videogrammetry was captured on scene on
the plane above Greenland? After a heated discussion, we let the scientist decide what he
wanted to wear but we made sure there was a disclaimer at the top of the piece describing where
and how the project was constructed.
Now, as we wrestle with social media’s rapid-fire sharing of manipulated news stories
and the widespread use of the term “fake news,” I look back at our nearly decade old Presence
journal article and it sounds prescient:
While we are accustomed to viewing video, images, and audio recordings as
faithful duplicates of reality, we know that in many instances they are not. It has
now become relatively simple to fake photographic images and even video
footage using free software that can be obtained online. Such fakes have been

97
distributed and sometimes even generated by leading media outlets. …
[Moreover,] a possible objection to immersive journalism may be that it may
strain the credibility of journalistic integrity, undermining the ability to bring the
“true facts” to the public. … [W]e claim that, perhaps unintuitively, the opposite
may be true. Immersive journalism does not aim solely to present ‘the facts’ but
rather the opportunity to experience “the facts.” (de la Peña, et.al. 2010, p. 301)

While embodiment offers what may be a new way to encounter the nonfiction story, it in itself
does not eradicate the meaningful representation of facts present in a quality news story. Instead,
current calls for better transparency in all nonfiction narratives are more relevant and should be
the standard upon which criticisms of immersive experiences are based. Chapter Five
underscores the fact that immersive journalism should be regarded much like any other news
content. Ask might it be lying? Trust and then verify.
In conclusion, this dissertation provides a chronicle of my efforts wrangling with best
practices, ethical arcs and reflections on related theory as I helped invent a new form of
nonfiction media. Immersive journalism, with its focus on an embodied experience of news
images and audio and being-in-that-world, as opposed to “leches les vitrines/licking the
windows”
37
on the outside of a story, is now slowly becoming an accepted form of news
production. Even though current costs of creation and distribution
38
remain hurdles for the
medium to become commonplace, I am certain that we will see more and more media
organizations embrace its use as improved technologies eliminate those barriers. Immersive
journalism is, and will be, too effective and powerful as a rhetorical tool to disregard.

37
See Chapter Two for a deeper discussion on this difference.
38
I have only recently launched REACH.Love which offers simple volumetric creation tools, distribution across all
platforms and devices, and is headset optional. My intent is to overcome the hurdles described above.

98

APPENDICES

99
APPENDIX ONE: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND EMBODIMENT: ACROSS THE LINE,
GREENLAND MELTING, AFTER SOLITARY

Research on Greenland Melting, After Solitary and Across the Line was conducted to
ascertain the effectiveness of virtual reality to tell the story of climate change, solitary
confinement and clinic harassment of young women. It seemed appropriate to include them as
part of this dissertation as I provided assistance and guidance throughout. The first study was
conducted by the Impact Project of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center on both Greenland
Melting and After Solitary, and the second, which focused on Across the Line, was conducted in
partnership with Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The consistent result was
that full embodiment, versus regular viewing or 360 flat video, was reported and registered to be
the most impactful.

100

Across The Line:
Biometric Evaluation
July 2018

101

2
1 Background & Objectives 3
2 Methodology & Sample 4 – 5
3 Emotions (Open End) & Motivations (Mindsight) 6 – 13
4 Across The Line Biometric Summary 14 – 20
5 Scene One- Doctor’s Office 21 – 27
6 Scene Two- In The Car 28 – 34
7 Scene Three- Among The Protestors 35 – 41
8 Attitudes (Abortion, Bullying & Intimidation) & Actions 42 – 45
9 Group Comparisons 46 – 55
10 Key Findings & Implications 56 – 60
11 Next Steps 61 – 62
Contents

102

3
Background &
Objectives
• Across The Line is a virtual reality experience to put viewers in the shoes of a patient
entering a health center for a safe and legal abortion.
• Planned Parenthood has partnered with Isobar to build on past research and further
understand the emotional dynamics and attitudinal shift(s) associated with Across The
Line.
• Key research questions include…
1. What is the emotional arc of the Across The Line virtual reality experience?
2. Where are the peaks and valleys? Does the experience work as intended?
3. What is the relationship between the emotional response and attitude change?
4. Are people who have a stronger emotional response to the experience more likely
to exhibit a change in attitude toward abortion access, clinic protests, etc.?
5. Is there a difference in the relationship between emotions and attitudes depending
on pre-existing attitudes?

103

4
1 2 3 4 5
Recruiting
Participants
Interview
Set Up (35 min.)
Across The Line
Experience (7 min.)
Motivational
Profiling (7 min.)
Attitudinal
Evaluation (10 min.)
• 22 participants
• 60 minute sessions
• Interviews to take
place in Isobar
Neurolab
(Needham), MA
• Participant profile on
subsequent slide
• Participant consent
and NDA forms
• Sensor placement
and calibration
• “The Across The Line
experience makes
me feel…”
• Computer-Based
• Open End Reaction
(voice recording)
• Abortion attitudes
(CAAS scale)
• Bullying &
Intimidation Attitudes
(TOBI scale)
• Willingness To Take
Action
Study/Interview Flow
GSR PPG
EEG EMG
MINDSIGHT®

104

5
Sample
Profile
• Subjects were predominately
women, 20-34 years old.
• 15% identified as non-white, with
9% Hispanic.
• Over half had graduated from
college or had advanced
degrees.
• Half were somewhat liberal, with
another third describing
themselves as moderate.
• Roughly 20% had accompanied
someone close to them when
they had an abortion.
• Three in four felt an abortion
should be legal but have some
restrictions.
Total
(n=22)
Male 36%
Female 64%
20-24 yrs. old 45%
25-34 yrs. old 18%
35-44 yrs. old 36%
Hispanic 9%
White 86%
African-American 5%
Asian 5%
Other 5%
H.S. Graduate 5%
Some College 36%
College Grad + 59%
Total
(n=22)
Somewhat Liberal 50%
Moderate 32%
Somewhat Conservative 18%
Had An Abortion 0%
Accompanied Someone Close
When They Had An Abortion
18%
Abortions should be legal in
most cases, but with some
restrictions.
77%
Abortions should not be allowed
except when the woman’s life is
in danger.
23%

105

Emotions and Motivations

106

-1 1
0
0 1
0 1
0 1
0 1
Experiencing Across the Line …
SADNESS
DISGUST
ANGER
FEAR
How does viewing Across the Line make you feel about the harassment that
sometimes happens outside of health centers?
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
Word art created at: https://wordart.com/create
Sentiment analysis completed by: Watson ™ Natural Language Analysis: https://natural-language-understanding-demo.ng.bluemix.net/
Overall sentiment score was a -0.62 on a scale of -1 to 1. Specific emotions are scored are on a scale of 0 to 1.
TOTAL
.62
.60
.52
.19
-.62

107

In Their Own Words…
I thought it was terrifying - so scary
to go through something like that
when you're already in a fragile state.
And then to be harassed like that
I just thought it was so scary.
Female (27 yrs. old)
I feel like the harassment outside the clinic is just,
it's not human and to use God as a weapon… we're
not here in this world to shame other people and
to blame them - we're here to help them.
Female (23 yrs. old)
I think it's really wrong the harassment that
they're experiencing and I think that if those
kinds of people were put into an immersive
experience like this that they also would think
twice about harassing the women that are
going into these health centers.
Male (36 yrs. old)
Being in the virtual reality and seeing
that that type of harassment happens
outside of abortion clinics it made me
really anxious and sad for the women
who were going there.
Female (21 yrs. old)

108

3
MindSight
®
accesses the Emotional Brain before the editing of rational analysis takes over.
Images are validated to measure
nine core emotions
The number of images selected,
and the speed determine strength of
emotions
The Emotional
Discovery Window
With a patented rapid image
exposure/response technique,
MindSight
®
gets data directly
from the emotional brain.
Respondents react to 126
specially curated images
Respondents complete a
sentence by choosing images
2 1 4
Image strength scores are mapped to
the MindSight® Motivational Matrix
synthesizing the work of 100+
psychologists (Maslow, Erickson, etc.)
Responses are classified
against a Model of Motivation

109

10
Mindsight
• Across the Line generates
greater negative emotions than
positive emotions compared to
Isobar norms.
Isobar Norms
(50
th
Percentile)
64
44
Total Motivation By Valence
Negative Positive
“The Across The Line VR experience makes me feel a little more…”

110

11
Negative Emotions
MY SELF IMAGE MY WORK/PLAY MY SOCIAL WORLD
SECURITY
IDENTITY
MASTERY
EMPOWERMENT
ENGAGEMENT
ACHIEVEMENT
BELONGING
NURTURANCE
ESTEEM
MOTIVATIONAL DOMAINS
“The Across The Line VR experience makes me feel a little more…”
Source: MindSight (n=16).
*Isobar stimulus norms.
45
59
36
56
26
55
67
58
42
#1 #3 #2
Percentile
vs. Norm*
• Across the Line generates feelings of
being isolated/alone (BELONGING) and
uncared for or abandoned
(NURTURANCE), embodied in the
protester attacks on Kristina.
• Negative identity likely reflects feelings
that protesters are dehumanizing, i.e.
Kristina is no longer seen as an
individual with a unique story but is
reduced to indistinguishable “women”.

111

12
Motivations In Focus
BELONGING
NURTURANCE IDENTITY
The Across The Line VR experience makes me feel a little more…”
Disliked
Abandoned
Unloved
Turned Away
Heartless
Indistinguishable
Like everyone else
Conformist
Normal
Isolated
Separated
Not Fitting In
Excluded
Alone

112

13
Emotional Response To Across The Line
• The dynamics of watching Across The Line suggest a model of how specific emotions mediated attitudinal change
ISOLATED
(-Belonging)
DISLIKED
(-Nurturance)
ANGER
Shift To Support
Abortion Access And
Against Clinic Protest
Reinforce Existing
Pro-Access Attitudes And
Anti-Clinic Protest
EXPERIENCE KEY EMOTIONS ATTITUDINAL OUTCOME
DEHUMANIZED
(-Identity)
DISGUST

113

Across The Line Biometrics

114

15
• Biometric data was collected in real-time from four sensors:
• After processing, we determined the EMG data should not be included in the analysis
1. Headset movement interfered with the electrodes and as a result there is too much “noise” in the data.
2. Facial expression of emotions is typically strongest in social situations. Participants wearing the headset are not interacting with
others and therefore less likely to exhibit emotional response via facial expression.
• The results from the remaining three sensors was analyzed
1. The entire Across the Line experience
2. On a scene by scene basis
• Results were compared against baseline measures to determine whether there were any changes
during the experience.
• Data for the two groups (those showing more attitudinal change and those showing less) were
examined separately to identify key moments that could be associated with attitudinal change.
Data Collection &
Analysis
Galvanic
Skin Response
(GSR)
Heart
Rate
(PPG)
Alpha
Asymmetry
(EEG)
Facial
Expression
(EMG)
VALENCE AROUSAL

115

16
SCENE ONE SCENE TWO SCENE THREE
Across the Line: Aggregate
-0.50
-0.40
-0.30
-0.20
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
106
111
116
121
126
131
136
141
146
151
156
161
166
171
176
181
186
191
196
201
206
211
216
221
226
231
236
241
246
251
256
261
266
271
276
281
286
291
296
301
306
311
316
321
326
331
336
-21
-18
-15
-12
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
12
15
18
21
EEG (Alpha Asymmetry) \ GSR (Change in % with GSR Peak)
Seconds
Heart Rate (Change in Beats/Minute)
Heart Rate Delta GSR Delta Alpha Asymmetry Delta

116

17
Scene
Description
Dr. Raegan and Kristina discuss her
upcoming abortion and discomfort with the
protesters
Kristina and Sam drive to the heath clinic, where
they encounter a protester advocating for abortion
alternatives
The viewer is harassed by yelling protesters who
attempt to intimidate the viewer as she enters the
clinic
Biometric
Activity
Heart rate increase and alpha
asymmetry decrease among the
More Change group.
Heart rate stays high among More Change
group, and alpha asymmetry decreases in
the 2
nd
half of the scene. GSR increases
for both groups in the 2
nd
half as well.
Alpha asymmetry oscillates initially among
More Change group in first third, while
heart rate increases for Less Change.
GSR increases for both groups.
Meaning
Greater initial apprehension
among the More Change group
Exchange between Kristina and the
protester generates heightened response
and avoidance among More Change
Personal attacks and religious imagery
(initial and final protesters) create the
strongest reaction, particularly
among More Change.
Across The Line Highlights

117

18
Across the Line: Alpha Asymmetry
SCENE ONE SCENE TWO SCENE THREE
Less
Change
More
Change
Approach
Withdraw
Change vs. Baseline (Alpha Asymmetry)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
140
145
150
155
160
165
170
175
180
185
190
195
200
205
210
215
220
225
230
235
240
245
250
255
260
265
270
275
280
285
290
295
300
305
310
315
320
325
330
335
-0.30
-0.25
-0.20
-0.15
-0.10
-0.05
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
Seconds

118

19
Across the Line: Heart Rate
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
140
145
150
155
160
165
170
175
180
185
190
195
200
205
210
215
220
225
230
235
240
245
250
255
260
265
270
275
280
285
290
295
300
305
310
315
320
325
330
335
-15
-12
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
12
15
Seconds
Poly. (Heart Rate More Change Delta) Poly. (Heart Rate Less Change Delta)
SCENE ONE SCENE TWO SCENE THREE
Less
Change
More
Change
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Activated
Deactivated

119

20
Across the Line: GSR
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
140
145
150
155
160
165
170
175
180
185
190
195
200
205
210
215
220
225
230
235
240
245
250
255
260
265
270
275
280
285
290
295
300
305
310
315
320
325
330
335
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Seconds
Poly. (GSR More Change Delta) Poly. (GSR Less Change Delta)
SCENE ONE SCENE TWO SCENE THREE
Less
Change
More
Change
Change vs. Baseline (GSR Peaks/Minute)
Activated
Deactivated

120

Scene One: In The Doctor’s Office

121

22
Scene One: In the Doctor’s Office
DR. RAEGAN: Kristina?
KRISTINA: Yeah
DR. RAEGAN: Hi I’m Dr. Raegan. How are you?
KRISTINA: I’m ok.
DR. RAEGAN: Alright, I was just looking over your chart
making sure everything’s in order. I just have a couple
questions for you, and then I want to make sure that you
have your questions answered before we get started.
Do you have any medical problems?
KRISTINA: No
DR. RAEGAN: Ok. And what questions do you have
for me?
KRISTINA: Um…
Dr. RAEGAN notices that Kristina is upset.
DR. RAEGAN: You ok?
KRISTINA: No
DR. RAEGAN: No? What’s going on? Are you unsure
of your decision or nervous about the procedure?
KRISTINA: No...No it was just those people out
there…
DR. RAEGAN: The protesters?
KRISTINA: Yeah
DR. RAEGAN: I’m so sorry. May I?
Dr. RAEGAN reaches out to touch her shoulder.
KRISTINA: Sure
DR. RAEGAN: I’m so sorry that you had to go through
that today. It’s not what you need on a day like this.
KRISTINA: No it’s not, it’s really not.
DR. RAEGAN: Do you have someone here to support you
through this process? Someone you can talk to afterwards?
KRISTINA: Yeah I do.
DR. RAEGAN: Good.
DR. RAEGAN: I’m so sorry. Well we’re here for you. If there’s
anything I can do to help you please let me know.
Images
TBD

122

23
Scene One: Alpha Asymmetry
-0.40
-0.30
-0.20
-0.10
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
Change vs. Baseline (Alpha Asymmetry)
Seconds
More Change Less Change
“This film uses real
audio stimuli”
Introductions between
Kristina and Dr. Raegan
Dr. Raegan asks if it was the protesters
that were upsetting Kristina
Kristina tells Dr. Raegan that she has
someone here to support her
Less
Change
More
Change
Approach
Withdraw

123

24
Scene One: Heart Rate
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Seconds
More Change Less Change
Introductory conversation between Kristina
and Dr. Raegan – standard medical
questions
Dr. Raegan notices that Kristina is upset
and asks her if she’s unsure of her choice
Kristina tells Dr. Raegan that
she has someone here to
support her
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

124

25
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
Change vs. Baseline (GSR Peaks/Minute)
Seconds
More Change Less Change
Scene One: GSR Delta
“This film uses real audio stimuli” – then
the doctor’s office comes into view
Dr. Raegan notices that Kristina is
upset and asks her if she’s unsure of
her choice
Dr. Raegan asks if it was the
protesters that were upsetting
Kristina
Dr. Raegan touches
Kristina and apologizes
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

125

26
Scene One: Summary
WARNING “This film uses
real audio stimuli”
Increased GSR
Alpha asymmetry decreased
Increased anxiety among
More Change group
Introductory conversation
between Kristina and Dr.
Raegan – standard medical
questions
Heart rate spiked
Alpha asymmetry decreased
Anxiety/apprehension among
the More Change group
Dr. Raegan noticed Kristina
was upset “The protestors?”
Alpha asymmetry decreased
Heart rate increased
GSR steadily increased
Discussion about protestors
may put the More Change
group on edge
Kristina affirms that she has
support. Dr. Raegan touched
Kristina’s arm
Heart rate increased
Alpha asymmetry lowered
GSR peaks decreased
More Change group may be
engaged but also calmed
somewhat by Dr. Raegan
and support for Kristina
Stimuli
Meaning
Images
TBD

126

27
-0.30
-0.25
-0.20
-0.15
-0.10
-0.05
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
EEG (Alpha Asymmetry) \ GSR (Change in % with GSR Peak)
Heart Rate
Seconds
Heart Rate Delta GSR Delta Alpha Asymmetry Delta
Scene One: All Metrics Delta
“This film uses real audio
stimuli” – then the
doctor’s office comes
into view
Introductory conversation between Kristina
and Dr. Raegan – standard medical
procedure
Dr. Raegan notices that Kristina is upset
and asks her if she’s unsure of her choice
Dr. Raegan asks if it was
the protesters that were
upsetting Kristina
Dr. Raegan
touches
Kristina and
apologizes
Kristina tells Dr. Raegan that she
has someone here to support her,
and Dr. Raegan says she [and
PP] will support her too

127

Scene Two: In The Car

128

29
Scene Two: Outside the Clinic
SCENE OPENS, HEAR SIRENS AND SEE A
GROUP OF PROTESTORS. A MAN IN A VEST
APPROACHES THE CAR
KRISTINA:…we’re wondering if you know where to
go for the clinic?
MAN: You’re here to pray for – at the abortion clinic,
or you’re here to go to the abortion clinic?
KRISTINA: I’m just not sure which building it is
MAN: It’s an abortion clinic, ma’am. They’ll do 20 to 30
abortions here today.
KRISTINA: Um…
MAN: Look there’s a place that’s very safe down the
street…please let me take you there. Please.
KRISTINA: I..I can’t
MAN: Please. Look. I know you’re struggling with
something, all right, but I don’t want to see you get
hurt. I’ve been doing this for eight years.
KRISTINA: What have –
SAM: What have you been doing -
MAN: I’ve been counseling out here for either years
and I see women go in that are struggling with it just
like you are and they come out two hours later and
many of them…are hurt and broken
KRISTINA: Broken?
MAN: I don’t know what your situation is but there is a
more dignifying choice for you as a woman and a mother
SAM: Her choice that she’s making is very dignified and
her counseling that she needs, is not from you.
MAN: We’ll pray for you okay
Images
TBD

129

30
Scene Two: Alpha Asymmetry
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 106
Change vs. Baseline (Alpha Asymmetry)
Seconds
Less Change More Change
A man in a vest approaches
– Kristina wonders aloud if
he knows where to go
The man says he has been “counseling”
for eight years – describes women
coming out of the clinic as “broken”
Sam rebuffs the man and says Kristina’s
choice is dignified and that she doesn’t
need his “counseling”
“20 Minutes Earlier…”
Scene comes into view – sitting in
car, hearing police sirens and voices
Less
Change
More
Change
Approach
Withdraw

130

31
Scene Two: Heart Rate
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 106
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Seconds
Less Change More Change
“20 Minutes Earlier…”
Scene comes into view – sitting in car,
hearing police sirens and voices
A man in a vest approaches
– Kristina wonders aloud if
he knows where to go
Man in vest asserts that it is an
abortion clinic and “they’ll do 20
to 30 abortions” a day
Sam and Kristina question the man’s
“counseling” – he describes what he
has seen outside of the abortion clinic
The man says there is a more
dignified choice for Kristina. Sam
rebuffs him.
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

131

32
Scene Two: GSR
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100 102 104 106
Change vs. Baseline (GSR Peaks/Minute)
Seconds
More Change Less Change
Kristina realizes the man in the vest is a Planned Parenthood protester
– he tells her it is an abortion clinic she’s going to, and he implores her
to go to a different facility down the street.
The man says there is a more
dignified choice for Kristina. Sam
rebuffs him.
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

132

33
Scene Two: Summary
“20 minutes earlier…”
Scene comes into
view – police sirens
and yelling
Heart rate and alpha
asymmetry increase
The More Change
group is “on alert” for
what might happen
A man in a vest
approaches the car
Heart rate and alpha
asymmetry increase
More Change group
drawn to man
approaching, the
environment is
charged
The man in a vest
tells Kristina she is
visiting an abortion
center and implores
her to go to a place
called Waterleaf
GSR steadily
increases
Increased arousal
building in the More
Change group.
He says he has
“counseled” women
and that women who
leave abortion clinics
are “broken”
Alpha asymmetry
decreases
Heart rate increases
More Change group
seek to avoid this
man’s message, they
were uncomfortable
The man says there
is a more “dignified
choice” and Sam
rebuffs him
GSR and heart rate
increase
Alpha asymmetry
decreases
The man’s final pleas
set off the More
Change group.
Stimuli
Meaning
Images
TBD

133

34
Scene Two: All Metrics
-1.0
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100 102 104
EEG (Alpha Asymmetry) \ GSR (Change in % with GSR Peak)
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Seconds
Heart Rate Delta GSR Delta Alpha Asymmetry Delta
Scene comes into view
– sitting in car, hearing
police sirens and voices
Kristina realizes the man in the vest is a Planned Parenthood protester
– he tells her it is an abortion clinic she’s going to, and he implores her
to go to a different facility down the street. He describes women who
come out of the clinic as “broken”
The man in the vest tells Kristina
there is a more dignified choice than
going to an abortion clinic. Sam
rebuffs him
A man in a vest
approaches – Kristina
wonders aloud if he
knows where to go

134

Scene Three: Among The Protesters

135

36
Scene Three: Among the Protestors
MAN 1: You’re a whore! You’re a little whore! How about stop
being a whore, you whore! Shame on you! Start closing your
legs! Start having some respect for your body! Maybe your
parents should have aborted you!
MAN 2: Devil’s got an army too! When a woman is raped by a man
and she conceives, that is God trying to give her a treasure out of the
darkness, a child that can be there with her when she is crying over
this pain, to wipe her tears and say “Mommy, I’m here for you, and I
love you.”
MAN 3: You’re a wicked woman, you know that, you’re a
wicked woman. What do you think you’re doing here? What do
you think you’re doing here? You’re a wicked woman.
OLD MAN: What would your grandma say? I can’t believe my
granddaughter is standing up for baby killers! She’s turning
over in her grave! If your grandmother was here, she’d put a
bag over her head, so that nobody would know that you were
her granddaughter!
MAN 4: Young lady, the hoodie cannot hide you from your
guilt, you cannot hide from God today. God sees you already
as a murderer at heart for even coming here!
WOMAN 2: Doesn’t anyone care about the rights of the
child? Doesn’t your child have rights?! How can you say
protect the rights of the mom if you’re not willing to protect
the rights of the child?!
MAN 5: Shame on you, that you would just walk in here with a
smile right into a murder clinic. Shame on you. God is going to
destroy you in the lake of fire and you won’t be smiling then.
You’ll be weeping, wailing and gnashing your teeth. Shame on
you, you wicked, pathetic woman. Wicked, jezebel, feminist.
Yeah, you shouldn’t have been a whore, you shouldn’t have
been sleeping with every guy, at the club. You wicked Jezebel!
Images
TBD

136

37
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108 111 114 117 120 123 126 129 132 135
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Seconds
Change vs. Baseline (Alpha Asymmetry)
Less Change More Change
Scene Three: Alpha Asymmetry Delta
“You’re a whore!” “Devil’s got an army too!” He describes a pregnancy
from rape as a treasure and impersonates a child comforting their
mother. A woman references the Bible and says God is “full of wrath”
Less
Change
More
Change
Approach
Withdraw

137

38
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108 111 114 117 120 123 126 129 132 135
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
Seconds
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Less Change More Change
Scene Three: Heart Rate
“Devil’s got an army too!” He
describes a pregnancy from rape
as a treasure
A man calls the patient “a murderer at heart”
after referencing God. Another woman pleads
that no one cares about the rights of the child
“…you shouldn’t have been sleeping with
every guy, at the club. You wicked Jezebel!”
”
A woman says to turn from sin
according to the bible “You know
there’s a God” that is “full of wrath”
“You’ll be weeping, wailing and gnashing your
teeth.”
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

138

39
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108 111 114 117 120 123 126 129 132 135
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Seconds
Change vs. Baseline (GSR Peaks/Minute)
GSR Less Change Delta GSR More Change Delta
Scene Three: GSR Delta
“How can you say protect the rights of the mom if you’re not willing to protect the rights of the child?!” A
second man shames the patient and accuses her of walking into the clinic with a smile on her face, and
she won’t be smiling when she burns “You’ll be weeping, wailing and gnashing your teeth.”
Less
Change
More
Change
Activated
Deactivated

139

40
Scene Three: Summary
“You’re a whore!...”
“Devil’s got an army too!…’”
“You need to turn from your sin…”
Large swings in alpha asymmetry
Heart rate spikes
The initial attacks were graphic,
personal, and biblical, making the More
Change group especially anxious and
upset.
“You’re a wicked woman…”
“What would your grandma say?...”
“Young lady, the hoodie…”
“Doesn’t anybody care about the...”
Less varied alpha asymmetry
Some spikes in heart rate and GSR
The rhetoric in the middle portion of
scene three was less vitriolic, biblical,
and more general. Physiological
response is somewhat diminished.
“You’ll be weeping, wailing and gnashing
your teeth….”
Heart rate increases
GSR increases
Final protestor resumes the biblical
imagery and personal attacks seen in the
beginning, triggering increased response
in the More Change group.
Stimuli
Meaning
Images
TBD

140

41
Scene Three: All Metrics Delta
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100 103 106 109 112 115 118 121 124 127 130 133 136
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Seconds
Change vs. Baseline (Beats/Minute)
Heart Rate GSR Alpha Asymmetry
“You’re a whore!” “Devil’s got an army too!” He describes a pregnancy
from rape as a treasure and impersonates a child comforting their
mother. A woman references the Bible and says God is “full of wrath”
“…you won’t be smiling then. You’ll be
weeping, wailing and gnashing your teeth.
Shame on you…”
EEG (Alpha Asymmetry) \ GSR (Change in % with GSR Peak)

141

Attitudes and Actions

142

43
Abortion
Attitudes
• The largest attitudinal shift is a
decrease in those who agree
that women who have abortions
have done something wrong.
• There was also a corresponding
increase in those agreeing that
abortions should be same and
legal.
• Attitudes expressing a more
personal relationship with a
woman who had an abortion saw
only slight change.
1. Higher in-going agreement prior
to viewing left less “headroom”
for post-viewing shifts.
2. Shifts in more personal attitudes
may also be more challenging to
generate.
Attitudes About Abortion
Pre
(n=22)
Post
(n=22)
Change
(n=22)
Women who have had abortions are
bad people
1.5 1.3 -0.1 (-9%)
Women who have abortions have
done something wrong
2.1 1.5 -0.6 (-28%)
Women who have abortions should
feel badly about themselves
1.6 1.5 -0.1 (-8%)
If a friend of mine had an abortion, I
would not judge her
4.4 4.0 -0.4 (-9%)
I could support a woman who had
an abortion even if I didn’t agree
with her decision
4.7 4.6 -0.1 (-2%)
Abortion should be legal and
available
4.0 4.4 0.5 (+11%)
“Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements.”
1=strongly disagree, 2=somewhat disagree, 3=neither agree nor disagree, 4=somewhat agree, 5=strongly agree.

143

44
Bullying &
Intimidation
• After experiencing Across the
Line subjects were less likely to
find acceptable activities such as
1. Protesting in front of clinics
2. Sharing information about abortion
alternatives
3. Protesting in front of the homes of
clinic workers
• Two of the three with the largest
change were featured in the
Across the Line experience.
• There was no change in
acceptance toward more
extreme behaviors, however
there was little acceptance of
these to begin with.
Attitudes About Bullying &
Intimidation
Pre
(n=22)
Post
(n=22)
Change
(n=22)
Protest in front of abortion clinics in my
community
2.2 1.8 -0.4 (-18%)
Photograph people entering abortion clinics
in my community
1.2 1.2 0.0 (n.c.)
Share information about abortion
alternatives with people entering abortion
clinics
2.8 2.3 -0.5 (-18%)
Protest in front of the homes of abortion
clinic workers
1.3 1.0 -0.2 (-18%)
Publish the home addresses and phone
numbers of abortion clinic workers or people
who have abortions on the internet
1.1 1.0 -0.1 (-12%)
Push, shove, or pick fights with people
entering abortion clinics
1.0 1.0 0.0 (-4%)
Advocate violence against abortion clinic
workers and people who have abortions
1.0 1.0 0.0 (n.c.)
Compare abortion to genocide on posters,
billboards, or in other media
1.4 1.4 0.0 (n.c.)
“How morally wrong or OK are the following situations?.”
1=really wrong, 2=sort of wrong, 3=sort of ok, 4=perfectly ok.

144

45
Willingness
To Take Action
• Spreading the word about
bullying and intimidation as well
as visiting legislative
representatives saw the largest
increase in willingness to
undertake.
• Other behaviors saw little to no
change after experiencing
Across the Line.
Willingness To Take Action
Pre
(n=22)
Post
(n=22)
Change
(n=22)
Tell my friends about bullying and
intimidation outside of abortion clinics.
68% 95% +27%pts
Sign an anti-clinic harassment petition on
social media.
64% 73% +9%pts
Share a link to an anti-clinic harassment
petition on social media.
41% 41% n.c.
Donate money to a pro-choice organization. 23% 23% n.c.
Write to your congressperson about abortion
clinic access.
32% 32% n.c.
Vote for a pro-choice congressperson. 73% 64% -9%pts
Visit your representative to support
legislation that keeps protestors away
from clinics.
14% 32% 18%pts
Volunteer as a clinic escort 18% 18% n.c.
TOTAL 3.3 3.8 +0.5 actions
“If you were asked today, which of the following actions would you be willing to take to ensure women can access
abortion care, free of bullying and intimidation?”

145

Group Comparisons

146

47
Group
Comparisons
• Subjects were divided into two groups based on the overall amount of change on a pre vs. post
basis across the attitudinal and behavioral questions of interest.
• Change was calculated for each attitude and behavior, taking into account the direction of change
relative to abortion access and bullying/intimidation. For example;
• Based on this comparison, subjects (n=11) who exhibited a greater degree of change on a pre/post
basis were placed in one group. Subjects (n=11) exhibiting a lesser degree of change were placed
in another group.
Pre Post Change
Abortion should be legal and available
Somewhat
Agree (4)
Strongly
Agree (5)
+1
Women who have had abortions are bad people
Somewhat
Disagree (2)
Somewhat
Disagree (2)
0
Protest in front of abortion clinics in my community
Sort of
Wrong (2)
Sort of
OK (3)
-1

147

48
Demographics
• There were no meaningful
demographic differences
between the two groups.
Groups
Less Change More Change
Gender
Male
36% 36%
Female
64% 64%
Age
20-24 years
36% 55%
25-34 years
27% 9%
35-45 years
36% 36%
Average Age
29 years 30 years
Hispanic 9% 9%
Race
White/Caucasian
82% 91%
Black/African-American/Caribbean/African
0% 9%
Asian/Pacific Islander/East Asian/South Asian
9% 0%
Other
9% 0%
Education
High School Graduate or Equivalent
9% 0%
Some College, No Degree
18% 55%
College Graduate
16% 36%
Post Graduate (MA, MBA, JD, Ph.D., Etc…)
27% 9%

148

49
Abortion
Attitudes
• The two groups generally
became more similar in their
views after experiencing Across
The Line, particularly when it
comes to agreeing that abortion
should be safe and legal.
• On a post-basis the group
exhibiting more change became
less critical of woman who had
had abortions
Attitudes About Abortion
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Women who have had abortions are bad
people
1.1 1.4 +.3 (+25%) 1.8 1.3 -0.5 (-30%)
Women who have abortions have done
something wrong
1.7 1.5 -0.2 (-11%) 2.5 1.5 -1.0 (-41%)
Women who have abortions should feel
badly about themselves
1.5 1.5 n.c. 1.8 1.5 -0.3 (-15%)
If a friend of mine had an abortion, I
would not judge her
4.9 3.9 -1.0 (-20%) 3.9 4.1 +0.2 (+5%)
I could support a woman who had an
abortion even if I didn’t agree with her
decision
4.7 4.5 -0.3 (-6%) 4.6 4.7 +0.1 (+2%)
Abortion should be legal and available 4.6 4.5 -0.2 (-4%) 3.3 4.4 +1.1 (+33%)
“Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements.”
1=strongly disagree, 2=somewhat disagree, 3=neither agree nor disagree, 4=somewhat agree, 5=strongly agree.
Less Change More Change

149

50
Bullying &
Intimidation
• Similar to abortion-related
attitudes, the two groups became
more alike after exposure to
Across The Line, especially in
their disapproval of protest in
front of local abortion clinics.
Attitudes About
Bullying & Intimidation
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Protest in front of abortion clinics in my
community
1.5 1.7 +0.2 (+12%) 2.9 1.7 -1.2 (-41%)
Photograph people entering abortion clinics
in my community
1.2 1.2 n.c. 1.3 1.2 -0.1 (-7%)
Share information about abortion
alternatives with people entering abortion
clinics
2.5 2.2 -0.4 (-14%) 3.1 2.2 -0.9 (-29%)
Protest in front of the homes of abortion
clinic workers
1.3 1.1 -0.2 (-14%) 1.3 1.1 -0.2 (-14%)
Publish the home addresses and phone
numbers of abortion clinic workers or
people who have abortions on the internet
1.2 1.0 -0.2 (-15%) 1.1 1.0 -0.1 (-8%)
Push, shove, or pick fights with people
entering abortion clinics
1.0 1.0 n.c. 1.1 1.0 -0.1 (-8%)
Advocate violence against abortion clinic
workers and people who have abortions
1.0 1.0 n.c. 1.0 1.0 n.c.
Compare abortion to genocide on posters,
billboards, or in other media
1.3 1.3 n.c. 1.5 1.3 -0.2 (-13%)
Less Change More Change
“How morally wrong or OK are the following situations?.”
1=really wrong, 2=sort of wrong, 3=sort of ok, 4=perfectly ok.

150

51
Willingness To
Take Action
• The Less Change (more pro-
abortion) group remained more
likely to take a number of actions
after experiencing Across The
Line.
• However the proportion of those
among the More Change group
who were willing to tell friends
about bullying and intimidation
more than doubled and become
on par with the Less Change
group (91% vs 100%).
Action
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Pre
(n=11)
Post
(n=11)
Change
(n=11)
Tell my friends about bullying and
intimidation outside of abortion clinics.
91% 100% +9%pts 45% 91% +45%pts
Sign an anti-clinic harassment petition on
social media.
73% 82% +9%pts 55% 64% +9%pts
Share a link to an anti-clinic harassment
petition on social media.
55% 55% n.c. 27% 27% n.c.
Donate money to a pro-choice organization. 45% 36% -9%pts 0% 9% +9%pts
Write to your congressperson about
abortion clinic access.
64% 45% -18%pts 0% 18% +18%pts
Vote for a pro-choice congressperson. 91% 73% -18%pts 55% 55% n.c.
Visit your representative to support
legislation that keeps protestors away from
clinics.
18% 45% +27%pts 9% 18% +9%pts
Volunteer as a clinic escort 27% 18% -9%pts 9% 18% +9%pts
Less Change More Change
“If you were asked today, which of the following actions would you be willing to take to ensure women can access
abortion care, free of bullying and intimidation?”

151

52
Change Group
Summary
The largest changes occurred in
how those in the more change
group…
• See women who have had an
abortion.
• View protest and information
sharing in front of abortion
clinics.
• Willingness to tell others about
bullying and intimidation outside
of clinics.
Less Change group increased
perception that women who have
had abortions are “bad”, but they
still largely disagree with the
statement.
Pre vs. Post Comparison Less Change More Change
Abortion Attitudes
Women who have had abortions are bad people
Women who have abortions have done something wrong
Bullying & Intimidation Attitudes
Protest in front of abortion clinics in my community
Share information about abortion alternatives with people
entering abortion clinics
Actions Willing To Take
Tell my friends about bullying and intimidation outside of
abortion clinics.
Abortion Attitudes: “Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements.” 1=strongly disagree, 2=somewhat disagree, 3=neither agree nor disagree, 4=somewhat agree, 5=strongly agree.
Bullying/Intimidation: “How morally wrong or OK are the following situations?” 1=really wrong, 2=sort of wrong, 3=sort of ok, 4=perfectly ok.
Actions: “If you were asked today, which of the following actions would you be willing to take to ensure women can access abortion care, free of bullying and intimidation?”
= 10% change on pre vs post basis.

152

-1 1
0
0 1
0 1
0 1
0 1
Experiencing Across the Line… (Less Change)
SADNESS
DISGUST
ANGER
FEAR
How does viewing Across the Line make you feel about the harassment that
sometimes happens outside of health centers?
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
Word art created at: https://wordart.com/create
Sentiment analysis completed by: Watson ™ Natural Language Analysis: https://natural-language-understanding-demo.ng.bluemix.net/
Overall sentiment score was a -0.56 on a scale of -1 to 1. Specific emotions are scored are on a scale of 0 to 1.
TOTAL
.60
.60
.22
.14
-.56

153

-1 1
0
0 1
0 1
0 1
0 1
Experiencing Across the Line… (More Change)
SADNESS
DISGUST
ANGER
FEAR
How does viewing Across the Line make you feel about the harassment that
sometimes happens outside of health centers?
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
Word art created at: https://wordart.com/create
Sentiment analysis completed by: Watson ™ Natural Language Analysis: https://natural-language-understanding-demo.ng.bluemix.net/
Overall sentiment score was a -0.68 on a scale of -1 to 1. Specific emotions are scored are on a scale of 0 to 1.
TOTAL
.64
.21
.49
.20
-.68

154

55
Negative
Emotions
MY SELF IMAGE MY WORK/PLAY MY SOCIAL WORLD
SECURITY
IDENTITY
MASTERY
EMPOWERMENT
ENGAGEMENT
ACHIEVEMENT
BELONGING
NURTURANCE
ESTEEM
MOTIVATIONAL DOMAINS
“The Across The Line VR experience makes me feel a little more…”
Source: MindSight (n=16).
*Isobar stimulus norms.
45
71
32
53
31
48
58
52
44 44
49
40
59
22
59
74
63
40
+16 +11 -22
Percentile
vs. Norm*
Less Change
More Change
• Feelings of negative belonging
and nurturance were higher
among those exhibiting greater
attitudinal change and were the
top motivations.
• Negative identity was
substantially greater among
those whose attitudes changed
less.

155

Key Learnings & Implications

156

57
Key Learnings &
Implications
• Experiencing Across The Line is associated with attitudinal change toward
abortion and abortion clinic access. The most pronounced shifts are in…
Increased agreement that abortion should be safe and legal.
Decreased acceptance of protest in front of abortion clinics.
Increased willingness to tell spread the word about bullying and intimidation in
front of clinics.
• Those who had the largest change in their attitudes were more likely
moderate to slightly conservative
Across The Line can help shift the perspective among people who initially held
more restrictive attitudes towards abortion and were more permissive of clinic
protest.
• People already more supportive of abortion access and critical of clinic protest
and more likely slightly liberal showed less change in attitudes
Among this group Across The Line largely reinforced existing attitudes.

157

58
Key Learnings &
Implications
• There is no simple emotional trajectory that describes Across The Line.
• Heightened physiological response to key moments were evident across the
scenes and among the group with greater attitudinal change, suggesting
these moments were instrumental in the resulting attitudinal shifts
1. In The Doctor’s Office: When Dr. Raegan notices the upset that the protestors
have caused Kristina, and when Dr. Raegan reassures Kristina that she has
support.
2. In The Car: When the protestor begins his monologue about alternatives to
abortion, and when Sam rebuffs him.
3. Among The Protestors: The graphic, personal, and biblical imagery used in the
attacks from the first several and last protestors.

158

59
Key Learnings &
Implications
• Several general user experience learnings also emerged that should be
considered for future initiatives
1. Users Are Literal: Attitudinal changes were strongest in relation to behaviors
shown in Across The Line. Future VR experiences should be built around the
attitudes/behaviors Planned Parenthood is seeking to change.
2. Users Need Direction: Participants were often unsure what they had to do after
entering the final scene (despite being given instructions beforehand). Future
experiences need to be either more intuitive about necessary user tasks or
avoid those tasks altogether.
3. Point Of View Is Key: In scene two (in the car) the “armrest” POV made it
difficult for participants to see the discussion with the protester and more
generally imagine themselves in the car. Future initiatives should be built to
maximize a first-person perspective.

159

60
• The current findings align to some but not all of the prior research and is
somewhat closer in findings to what was seen with SKDKnickerbocker than
the Sea Change Program
• These are likely related to differences in the sample composition of the two
prior initiatives
SKDKnickerbocker interviews were conducted among moderate to slightly conservative
individuals while the Sea Change survey was among a generally more liberal sample that
was already low on the attitudinal scales (CAAS, TOBI) and therefore had less headroom
for change.
Key Learnings &
Implications
Support for women who
have had an abortion
Tolerance for common
forms of bullying
Wrong to protest outside
of health clinics
Heightened anger among those less
tolerant of common forms of bulling
Wrong to share information
about abortion alternatives
outside of clinics
No change in abortion attitudes
or willingness to take action

160

Next Steps

161

62
Next Steps
• Address any outstanding questions/issues based on feedback from PPFA
• Update deck with scene images
• Discuss additional presentation needs for PPFA
• Discuss PPFA “permission requirements” for Isobar case study

162

Marketing
Intelligence
Practice
One South Station
Third Floor
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 936-1600
57 Greens Farms Rd.
First Floor
Westport, CT 06880
(203) 831-2370
75 2
nd
Ave.
Suite 220
Needham, MA 02494
(781) 863-5000
The Sciences of Why….the Science of Success
Jeremy Pincus │ (617) 449-4440 │ jeremy.pincus@isobar.com
Seth DeAvila │ (617) 449-4449 │ seth.deavila@isobar.com

163

164

APRIL 2018
THE MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT OF THE
USC ANNENBERG NORMAN LEAR CENTER
DOES MEDIUM MATTER?
Exploring the Role of Virtual Reality in Journalism
BETH KARLIN, HYUN TAE (CALVIN) KIM, RUTH KELL Y,
JOHANNA BLAKLEY, CORINNE BRENNER & PATRICIA RILEY

165

ABOUT
The Norman Lear Center is a nonpartisan research and public policy center that studies the social, political,
economic and cultural impact of entertainment on the world. The Lear Center translates its findings into
action through testimony, journalism, strategic research and innovative public outreach campaigns. On
campus, from its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the Lear Center builds
bridges between schools and disciplines whose faculty study aspects of entertainment, media and culture.
Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between the entertainment industry and academia, and between them
and the public. Through scholarship and research; through its conferences, public events and publications;
and in its attempts to illuminate and repair the world, the Lear Center works to be at the forefront of
discussion and practice in the field. For more information, please visit: www.learcenter.org.
At the Lear Center’s Media Impact Project (www.mediaimpactproject.org), we study the impact of
news and entertainment on viewers. Our goal is to prove that media matters, and to improve the quality of
media to serve the public good. We partner with media makers and funders to create and conduct program
evaluation, develop and test research hypotheses, and publish and promote thought leadership on the role
of media in social change.
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our
times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award,
including 89 Emmy Awards and 20 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and Google+ to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH
Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS
viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Ford Foundation, the
Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, The John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE
Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.
Emblematic Group creates award-winning immersive content powered by proprietary technology. Founded
in 2011 by VR pioneer Nonny de la Peña, Emblematic has been a leader in volumetric storytelling and one of
the world’s premiere producers of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. ‘Hunger in Los Angeles’ was the first
ever VR documentary to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Since then, the company has built
a critically acclaimed body of work that has included tracking the chaos of the Syrian civil war; capturing the
tension of a wheel change during the Singapore Grand Prix; and conveying the scope and scale of climate
change. Emblematic partners with organizations including Google, Mozilla, The Wall Street Journal and The
New York Times to create both tools and content that enlighten, empower, and educate audiences.
This project was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through a grant to investigate
best practices and the ethics of immersive virtual reality journalism. We thank the Knight Foundation
for their generous support.
We wish to thank participants in both studies for their time and many insightful comments; Emblematic Group for their support in
executing both studies; Veronica Jauriqui for report design and layout; Jason Kaufman and Pietro Greppi for their contributions to the
After Solitary report, and Kevin Marshall for his contributions to this final report.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

166

For more information about this report, please email media.impact@usc.edu.
4
5
7
8
9
11
20
23
24
CONTENTS
STUDY 1: After Solitary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
STUDY 2: Greenland Melting
13
14
15
18
BACKGROUND
METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION DISCUSSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES

167

Virtual Reality (VR) provides a potentially exciting new way for
audiences to experience journalism, yet questions remain about
the role of VR in engaging audiences on important social issues.
The USC Media Impact Project (MIP) is working to understand
how this new technology can be best employed and how it can
engage audiences to learn, understand, and act on the stories
presented.
FRONTLINE and Emblematic group collaborated to create
two Room-scale VR experiences, using a variety of cutting
edge techniques to share journalistic content. We at MIP then
presented participants with these experiences and collected
data on what they thought, felt, and were likely to do in response
to these stories through surveys and interviews. Although both
pieces were developed for Room-scale VR, they were adapted
for use in other formats (including traditional video, 360 video,
and Immersive 360 video).
METHODS
Participants were randomly assigned to experience the story
in Room-scale VR or a comparison group. They were given a
pre- and post-survey to ask about their participant experience
as well as to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, and
behavioral intention based on their experience. Greenland
Melting participants were shown a second version after the post-
survey and asked to compare their experiences in small groups.
These studies had relatively small samples that do not fully
represent the U.S. population yet, they are a promising step in
understanding how VR technology can be leveraged to enhance
the impact of journalistic content.
FINDINGS
● Participants in After Solitary reported that the experience
helped them gain a personal perspective on Kenny’s
physical state and emotional journey. Participants in
Greenland Melting reported that virtual space helped
demonstrate key concepts, especially by using time lapse
and granting access to hard-to-reach locales.
● Both experiences inspired interest in FRONTLINE topics
and in VR journalism. This effect was strongest among VR
novices and for participants unfamiliar with FRONTLINE.
For these individuals, the virtual experiences served as an
invitation to explore new topics and sources of content.
● VR provided an outstanding immersive experience, but an
imperfect knowledge acquisition environment. Participants
were fully engaged in exploring their environment—which
came with a tradeoff. Compared to the same experiences
on other platforms, participants remembered details less
accurately after a Room-scale VR experience and some
commented on “missing” details in the content.
● Participants enjoyed taking control and testing the
boundaries of each experience, and they wanted fully
interactive experiences. Such interactivity designing
experiences that heighten agency is challenging because
participants became frustrated when they believed they
missed what they were “supposed to be” watching.
● The presence of a guide or central character gave
participants context for the physical experience and
information in After Solitary and Greenland Melting. Both
Kenny and the scientists offered moments of connection
that made the virtual experiences’ unique features of
sensory immersion, embodiment, and agency stand out.
The development process for After Solitary and Greenland
Melting created an opportunity to explore best practices for
journalistic content in VR and its impact on audiences. Our
findings support the potential for VR journalism to capture an
audience’s attention, and encourage attitude and behavior
change, to a greater extent than content produced for other
platforms. However, the platform alone is not a magic bullet—
it has unique affordances which, combined with effective
storytelling and appropriate choice of subject matter, had an
impact on a receptive audience. Additional research into the
impacts of medium on viewer experience can serve to enhance
our understanding of this new platform and leverage it to engage
new audiences on important issues.
This report presents the results of two studies examining audience impacts of two virtual reality
experiences created by FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group. In After Solitary, viewers were
confronted with one man’s memories of his solitary confinement and life after incarceration, while
Greenland Melting introduces viewers to two scientists measuring glacier melt.
4
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
EXECUTIVE SUMMMARY

168

VR is not defined by any single piece of technology (such as a
head-mounted display), but by a combination of features that
together construct a world where users can take action (Dow,
2008). The unique features of VR are often described as a sense
of presence, meaning the technology creates the “feeling of
being there”; and a sense of agency, meaning users control
their experience in a virtual environment, such as navigating the
space, interacting with characters, or changing the course of
events (Dow, 2008).
Past research has found that virtual experiences can improve a
surgeon’s skills during real operations, change the outcome of
negotiations, and increase pro-environmental and pro-social
behavior (Ahn, Bailenson, & Park, 2014; Gehlbach et al., 2015;
Rosenberg, Baughman, & Bailenson, 2013; Seymour et al.,
2002). Researchers have attributed these effects to VR’s ability
to evoke presence, encourage perspective-taking, and give
participants a sense of being in control of their environment.
While researchers have demonstrated several effects of virtual
experiences, we know far less about how users interact with
immersive journalism. This ability to give users a chance
to experience a new perspective, and the consequences
of taking on that perspective, are especially significant for
journalistic content. Journalism serves multiple purposes,
including accurately informing the public about current issues,
and framing public conversations to facilitate active civic
participation (Tofel, 2014).
By placing users within specific events and giving them a degree
of agency, immersive VR could encourage the creation of new
emotional connections between viewers and the events being
depicted (Gajsek, 2016). Compared to journalism presented
through other media, the unique immersive characteristics
of VR is an important step to understanding how this new
technology compares to other linear media in achieving the
journalistic purpose to inform and engage audiences on
important social issues .
In After Solitary and Greenland Melting, FRONTLINE and
Emblematic explored new ways to use VR to draw audiences
into journalistic content. Both pieces capitalized on VR’s
potential to give audiences a chance to visit unfamiliar places
and perspectives. By placing users at the center of the story
and giving them a degree of agency, virtual experiences upend
traditional methods for telling journalistic stories and encourage
a closer emotional connection to the events depicted.
FRONTLINE and Emblematic engaged the Media Impact
Project (MIP) to conduct an evaluation of After Solitary and
Greenland Melting. The goal of this research was to investigate
participants’ responses to a journalistic experience in virtual
reality. Together, we set out to answer the following questions:
1. What is the general viewer response to a VR journalism
experience?
2. What (if any) differences are there between viewing the
same content in Room-scale VR and less immersive
technologies (e.g., 360 video, 2D video, especially in terms
of their experience, knowledge, attitudes, and intended
future behaviors?
This report presents the methods and results of both studies,
then concludes with implications and recommendations for
future research and practice in VR journalism.
Virtual Reality (VR) is one of many interactive technologies
increasingly being used by newsrooms as a new opportunity to
connect with audiences (Watson, 2017).
5
INTRODUCTION

169

6
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
“Getting even a little inside his world… gave a great foundation to really
connect with the experience and empathize.”
“
STUDY 1: AFTER SOLITARY

170

After Solitary chronicles Kenny’s memories of solitary confinement
and his life after incarceration, putting users in his former cell and
bedroom as he describes his experiences, while factual information
about the U.S. prison system accompanies his story.
To study After Solitary, we focused on how virtual reality affects people’s ability to see the world through the experiences of
others, their feelings about whether they have control (or “agency”) in a story, and how this experience might change a user’s
experience, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Immersing a user in the virtual environment of Kenny’s former prison cell
offers the opportunity to reduce the distance between the user and the events that transpired at the Maine State Prison. The
physical dimensions and story of the events can be told in real time and at a human scale, instead of describing the space
with text or depicting it in 2-D video. The user is also free to explore the entire virtual environment and decide where to focus
his or her attention, unlike in text or conventional video formats.
We designed our study around two central questions:
1. What is the general viewer response to the After Solitary experience?
2. What (if any) differences are there between participants’ experience, knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions
when viewing After Solitary based on the platform used?
We used survey responses to address these questions, and compared outcomes between participants who experienced
After Solitary as a 360 video, an Immersive 360 video, or in Room-scale VR. Our approach and results, summarized below,
found that more
immersive platforms
created the best
user experience
overall. Although
participants
critiqued some
aspects of the
technology,
they responded
differently to the
story based on the
degree to which the
platform allowed
them to inhabit
the virtual world.
The participants
who used more
immersive platforms were more likely to recommend the experience, look for more information about the topic, and look for
more VR journalism on other topics.
7
AFTER SOLITARY
A scene from After Solitary
BACKGROUND

171

PROCEDURES
Participants were randomly assigned to experience After Solitary using one of the three
platforms:
1. 360 video (viewed on a laptop with headphones)
2. Immersive 360 video (using a Samsung Gear)
3. Room-scale virtual reality (using an HTC Vive)
We compared what participants thought, felt, and were likely to do in response to the story
via surveys distributed before and after the experience (survey instruments available upon
request). Each session took approximately 30 minutes per person (Figure 1).
Data was analyzed quantitatively using ANOVA (numerical variables) and Chi Squared (cate-
gorical variables) to assess differences between groups. Qualitative analysis of open-ended
items allowed us to dig deeper into participants’ responses.
8
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
FIGURE 1
Procedure for
After Solitary
informed consent
pre survey
N=92
post survey
N=92
360 Video
N=33
Immersive
Video
N=32
Room-
scale VR
N=27
METHODS
PARTICIPANTS
Participants were recruited via email, online advertisement, and social media. A total of ninty-two (92) people participated in the
study. All participants were compensated with a $20 online Amazon gift card.
18-25 yrs
26-35 yrs
36-45 yrs
56+ yrs
46-55 yrs
30%
20%
24%
15%
11%
6%
46%
35%
13%
some college
college graduate
masters degree
doctorate
72% liberal
24%
conservative
2% neutral
2% n/a
17%
30%
53%
not
environmental
very
environmental
somewhat
environmental
FRONTLINE
participants who said that
they watched FRONTLINE:
48% museum or event
28% never experienced VR
17% used VR at work
4% rental or arcade
4% own a VR device
*due to
rounding,
does not equal
100%
Note: Represents participants from both studies.

172

9
AFTER SOLITARY
PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE
What is the general viewer response to the After Solitary
experience?
● After Solitary inspired interest in VR journalism, even for VR novices.
● Participants who used 360 video took the perspective of outsiders
looking in, and commented on details of Kenny’s story. Participants
using Room-scale VR focused on their own perspective and
experiences.
● Participants thought After Solitary was credible on all platforms.
● Room-scale VR was easiest to use, and inspired feelings of
transportation (the feeling of being absorbed into a story), and
spatial presence (the feeling that one could carry out actions in the
virtual environment); the 360 video was rated easier to use than the
Immersive 360 video.
● Participants were critical of the fuzziness of Kenny’s figure, which
limited the feeling of immersion; the physical discomfort associated
with wearing a VR headset; and at times not knowing where to look.
● The most frequently cited “best” feature of the experience involved
some description of how it felt to “be there” in the cell with Kenny.
(“The feeling of being inside the spaces — how claustrophobic they
were and the bleak, institutional environment of the jail cell.”)
● The second most popular feature involved empathy both for Kenny
specifically, and for his time spent in solitary confinement. (“Getting
even a little inside his world...gave a great foundation to really
connect with the experience and empathize.”)
● Other frequent responses include the realism of the experience,
sharing the feeling of being in solitary confinement, and the ability to
look around while watching the video. (“I couldn’t stop looking around
at what the spaces looked like.”)
FIGURE 2
Average Ratings of Transportation,
Special Presence, and Ease of Use by
Platform
Transportation
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
Spatial Presence
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
Easy to Use
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
360 Video Immersive
360 video
Room-scale
VR
360 Video Immersive
360 video
Room-scale
VR
360 Video Immersive
360 video
Room-scale
VR
A participant experiencing After Solitary

173

10
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
Not Familiar
30-
20-
10-
0-
Familiar
30-
20-
10-
0-
Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLATFORMS
What (if any) differences are there between participants’ experience, knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral
intentions when viewing After Solitary based on the technology and platform used?
● Participants using Room-scale VR or Immersive 360 video were more likely to look for more reporting about solitary
confinement or prison conditions, than those using 360 video. They were also more likely to look for “another FRONTLINE
experience like this” and “other kinds of FRONTLINE content,” compared to participants who saw the 360 video.
● Participants who used Room-scale VR reported higher feelings of narrative transportation and a greater sensation of spatial
presence (the feeling that they could carry out actions in the virtual environment) than those who used the Immersive 360
video or 360 video. Participants also thought Room-scale VR, using the HTC Vive, was the easiest device to use, followed by
the 360 video on the Laptop, and the Immersive 360 video. (See Figure 2)
● Participants watching the 360 video and in the Immersive 360 conditions were more likely to focus on the “plot points” of
Kenny’s story (i.e., sending kites, seeing Kenny’s scars, seeking therapy after his release), and were more likely to say they
learned something from this experience. Room-scale VR participants, on the other hand, were more likely to discuss their
Did Not Like
30-
20-
10-
0-
Liked
30-
20-
10-
0-
Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely
Room Scale VR
Immersive 360 video
360 video
FIGURE 3
(split by familiarity with
FRONTLINE)
HOW LIKELY ARE YOU TO:
Look for more reporting
about solitary confinement
or prison conditions?
Look for another
FRONTLINE experience
like this?

174

own reflections of how it felt to be immersed in the experience (i.e., feeling how small the cell was, or feeling like they were
“really there”), and to focus on the events from their own perspectives rather than Kenny’s.
● Whereas 360 video participants were more likely to qualify the experience as depressing, and discuss their empathy
towards Kenny, Room-scale VR presented participants with a “wowing” piece of technology that provided a unique
experience engaging visual, auditory, and proprioceptive senses. (“You actually experience it. And when you’re stuck in that
little box, that’s maddening for me just as a viewer, but you can imagine what it must have been like for those people who
are stuck, first in a prison cell and then later in their own house, these prisons created in their minds.” —Room-scale VR
participant)
● Participants in the Room-scale VR condition gave the highest ratings for how likely they were to recommend this experience
to a friend. Participants in the Room-scale VR condition were also more likely to share how the experience looked and
sounded than participants using either Immersive 360 or 360 video.
● The platform used did not influence how likely participants were to “Talk with others about the information you heard during
this experience,” “Volunteer Time,” “Donate Money” or “Sign a Petition.” These items had average ratings in the 3-5 range,
indicating a low to moderate likelihood to take these actions.
RESULTS
Overall, participants reported immersive and impactful experiences with After Solitary. Narrative and technical features of
immersive technology contributed to users’ physical and emotional proximity to Kenny’s experience of living in solitary confine-
ment, though individual differences influenced the degree of impact.
Our summary of findings revealed three key insights:
1. After Solitary inspired interest in VR journalism generally.
2. Use of different platforms cast participants as outsiders looking in, or having a unique experience of their own.
3. Implications of the “active” nature of the audience experience in VR for journalism requires further thinking.
Room-scale VR is the most effective way to create a feeling of “being there.” For environments with unique spatial
characteristics, it creates that feeling to a greater degree than Immersive 360 video or 360 video, leaving a bigger impression on
novice users.
VR experiences absorb users’ attention for short, intense periods of time. It inspires users to seek more information afterwards,
but it is not the most effective medium to commit facts to memory. If participants in VR can control where to look, but cannot
interact with objects in the environment, they have “presence” but not total “agency” — they have a limited ability to influence
the environment. VR storytellers should leverage the user’s role as an active viewer to reward curiosity about the environment. If
participants miss explanatory text presented in the scene, the experience should not be compromised.
Participants in immersive experiences are not yet familiar with the conventions of this medium, so it is still important to clarify
the “rules” of the environment. Visual cues about spatial environments, like where the horizon is or where the walls of a room
meet, can be used to help participants stay oriented between scenes. Spatial cues in audio input should also be consistent. For
example, participants expected Kenny’s voice to align with his presence in the space. Naive users appreciate VR experiences
and are inspired to look for more content after using it, but often do not have access to hardware in everyday life. Distribution
remains a challenge; live events are an effective way to build excitement for VR experiences or capture gatekeepers’ attention,
but web-based, sharable content is still the bulk of any piece’s audience.
11
AFTER SOLITARY

175

12
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
“I’ve tried out VR games before, but just for entertainment, like the
rollercoaster experience...this was the first time that I actually learned
something during a VR experience.”
“
STUDY 2: GREENLAND MELTING

176

Although both pieces were optimized for Room-scale VR, the content and storytelling techniques used in After Solitary and
Greenland Melting were quite different. After Solitary focused on one man’s experiences in solitary confinement, and featured
two main settings, both indoors; Greenland Melting followed two NASA scientists through indoor and outdoor environments
and used a variety of visual cues to show how rapidly glaciers in Greenland are melting, why they are changing faster than
expected, and how scientists study those changes.
These differences in content and structure provided an additional opportunity to study the unique aspects of Greenland
Melting, and contribute to the body of knowledge about VR and environmental communication. Previous research studying
the impact of a virtual experiences on participants’ pro-environmental behavior demonstrated that feelings of agency
mattered. For example, one study enabled people to grow trees in a virtual environment and that experience led to more
positive pro-environmental behavioral intentions (Ahn et al., 2014). Visualizing and quantifying water consumption and waste
similarly changed attitudes and conservation behaviors (Weisenstein, 2016).
Building on the research questions from After Solitary, we refined our methods to answer the following questions:
1. What is the general viewer response to the
Greenland Melting experience?
2. What (if any) differences are there between
participants’ experience, knowledge, attitudes,
and behavioral intentions when viewing
Greenland Melting based on the platform used?
As noted earlier, changes in attitudes and behavioral
intentions are situated in, and motivated by, both
cognitive and emotional factors; in other words,
individuals are spurred to change their thoughts
and actions by both thinking and feeling (Edwards,
1990). Immersion in virtual reality is a more “active”
and “multi-dimensional” experience when compared to viewing the same content passively on a screen. Our preliminary
results from After Solitary suggested the additional sensory information and embodied experience of immersive virtual reality
do provide users with opportunities to deeply engage with the content. However, this may come at a cognitive cost — users
may not absorb all the information they would otherwise learn.
Building on these findings, the present study inquires more deeply into the emotional responses of participants, examining
changes in attitude and behavioral intentions within participants over time, and across different technology platforms, to
further our understanding about audience responses to journalistic virtual reality.
13
GREENLAND MELTING
The filming of Greenland Melting
BACKGROUND
Following our study of After Solitary, we built on its methods and
preliminary findings to investigate and draw comparisons with the
Greenland Melting content produced by FRONTLINE, Emblematic
Group, and NOVA in association with xRez Stuidio and Realtra.

177

14
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
METHODS
PROCEDURES
The study design included both a between-subjects and a within-subjects design comparing
the experiences of Room-scale VR (using an HTC Vive) and a non-interactive video version of
the same content (viewed on a laptop with headphones).
1. Between Subjects: Participants were randomly assigned to either the video or VR version
first, and given a pre-survey and post-survey to compare experiences between the two
(survey instruments available upon request).
2. Within Subjects: After completing the post-survey, participants were exposed to the
second version and then interviews were conducted to ask about their perceptions and
comparisons of the two.
We compared what participants thought, felt, and were likely to do in response to the story
via surveys distributed before and after the experience and asked participants to compare
the experiences in their own words during the post-session interviews. Each session took
approximately 60 minutes per person (Figure 4).
PARTICIPANTS
Participants were recruited via email, online advertisements, and social media. A total of fifty-four (54) people participated in the
study. All participants were compensated with either a $20 Amazon Gift Card or extra credit (for eligible USC students).
18-25 yrs
26-35 yrs
36-45 yrs
56+ yrs
46-55 yrs
30%
20%
24%
15%
11%
6%
46%
35%
13%
some college
college graduate
masters degree
doctorate
72% liberal
24%
conservative
2% neutral
2% n/a
17%
30%
53%
not
environmental
very
environmental
somewhat
environmental
FRONTLINE
participants who said that
they watched Frontline
48% museum or event
28% never experienced VR
17% used VR at work
4% rental or arcade
4% own a VR device
pre survey
N=54
post survey
N=54
interview
N=52
Room-scale VR
N=26
Video
N=28
EXPERIENCE 1 EXPERIENCE 2
informed
consent
Video
N=26
Room-scale VR
N=28
FIGURE 4
Procedure for Greenland
Melting
*due to
rounding,
does not equal
100%
Note: Represents participants from both studies.

178

15
GREENLAND MELTING
The results of this study were categorized along the following areas: Participant Experience, Knowledge, Attitudes, and
Behavior. Where necessary, the impact of prior awareness and use of FRONTLINE and its content was also considered.
PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE
How did viewers engage with the Greenland Melting content? Did the medium make a difference?
Yes, compared to participants who viewed the video, participants who viewed the VR experience:
● Provided more positive feedback on the experience
● Provided less negative feedback on the experience
● Reported more feelings of “spatial presence,” where they felt engaged with the natural and artificial elements of the
virtual environment
● Reported more feelings of “connectedness,” where they felt like they had been physically transported to Greenland
● Liked the experience more
● Were more likely to experience spatial disorientation
Both the VR and video experiences were rated highly for ease of use, though the video was higher and the difference was
statistically significant. Participants also found both versions of the experience credible, with no significant difference
between the two platforms.
KNOWLEDGE
What was the impact of Greenland Melting content on viewers’ knowledge? Did the medium make a difference?
Yes, compared to participants who viewed the VR experience, participants who viewed the video:
● Improved their likelihood of accurately estimating global sea level rise if all the ice in Greenland melted (76% answered
this open-ended question correctly after the video and 59% answered correctly after VR, from less than 5% estimating
correctly beforehand)
● Were more likely to report feeling “informed”
80-
70-
60-
50-
40-
30-
20-
10-
8-
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
2-
1-
Participant Experience
Percent who
answered knowledge
question correctly
Ease of Use* Liking*** Transporation*** Spatial Credibility
Presence***
FIGURE 5
*p<.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001 Video VR
Height of Sea Level Rise***

179

16
Both the VR and video experiences increased the likelihood of accurately
estimating the volume of sea level rise if all the ice in Greenland melted.
Participants also retained key points of Greenland Melting, such as
identifying the rate of glacier melt and its cause (warming ocean water),
as well as stating that melting glaciers contribute to sea level rise after
the experience, regardless of the platform.
ATTITUDES
What was the impact of Greenland Melting on viewers intent to
take action? Did the medium make a difference?
In some cases. Compared to participants who viewed the video,
participants who viewed the VR experience:
● Were more likely to report an emotional response to the material,
usually negative, such as “unsettled,” “concerned,” “frightened”
● Were more likely to report that the experience “felt real”
However, there was no statistically significant difference between
whether participants experienced the virtual reality or the video version
of Greenland Melting with regard to:
● Belief in climate change and glacier melt — remained stable across
both versions (this sample of individuals strongly agreed both before
and after)
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT
FIGURE 7
Ratings of likelihood participants will
seek out more content on glaciers
and rising sea levels, FRONTLINE
content, or VR journalism
FRONTLINE
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
Video Room-scale
VR
Glaciers/Sea Levels
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
Video Room-scale
VR
VR
VR Journalism
7-
6-
5-
4-
3-
Video Room-scale
Watch
FRONTLINE
Do Not Watch
FRONTLINE
Video
4-
3-
2-
1-
0-
Before After
Room-scale VR
Before After
No experience with VR
Some experience with VR
VR
FIGURE 6
How likely are you to buy a VR device in the next year or
two?

180

17
● Trust in science and scientists — increased after experiencing both
versions, driven by increase in Room-scale VR
● Psychological distance of climate change — reduced after, across
both versions
● Perceptions of risk — remained stable across both versions
● Environmentalism — remained stable across both versions
● Perceived self-efficacy — remained stable across both versions
BEHAVIORAL INTENT
Can Greenland Melting content change behavioral intentions of
viewers on climate change? Did the medium make a difference?
Yes, compared to participants who viewed the video, participants who
viewed the VR experience:
● Were more likely to report intent to seek out FRONTLINE and VR
journalism content if they had not watched FRONTLINE in the last
year
● Reported higher intention that they were likely to buy a VR device
in the next year or two if this was their first VR experience (Figure 6)
There were no statistically significant differences between participants
who experienced the virtual reality or the video version of Greenland
Melting with regard to:
● Likelihood to “Ask your congressperson to support a strong climate
change bill” — increased after, across both versions
● Llikelihood to “ Join an environmental group” — increased after,
across both versions
● Likelihood to “Choose a car that gets good fuel mileage” —
remained stable across both versions
● Support for “policies to upgrade flood defenses to a higher
standard” — increased after, across both versions
● Support for “teaching children about the causes, consequences,
and potential solutions to climate change” — remained stable
across both versions
GREENLAND MELTING
“[On the video] I felt like
I was hearing a story;
in the VR I felt like I was
part of the story. I felt
like I was out collecting
this information. It
draws you in, makes you
feel connected, involved,
engaged.”
“
“If you want to simply
absorb the facts, the
computer version is
the way to go...but if
you want to get a feel
for what scientists are
feeling, then the VR is
much more powerful.”
“

181

18
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
RESULTS
Overall, participants reported Greenland Melting was an immersive and impactful experience. Participants learned about
glacier melt and the scientists who study it, and intended to change specific behaviors in response to their emotional and
educational experiences. While the video was easier to use, Room-scale VR provided the better user experience. Age and
comfort with technology did not present significant barriers to this group. Our mixed method approach yielded five key
insights:
Experiencing Greenland Melting in any form improved participants’ comprehension of glacier melt and sea level
rise, but participants were more likely to retain specific facts from the video version, rather than Room-scale VR.
The consensus from participants is that VR provides more of an impressive experience and emotional pull, but came at the
expense of knowledge gain and retention. Exploring the experience from their own perspective took precedence over listening
or watching for visual cues.
Participants’ attitudes about climate change were relatively stable, but experiencing Greenland Melting
increased trust for science and scientists. This may be a case of “preaching to the choir,” for this sample; or it
may be that an experience engaging with virtual characters lends itself to changing attitudes about people,
rather than systems.
First, participants in this educated, liberal-leaning, Southern California sample may have taken a position about topics around
climate change long ago, leaving little room for a brief media experience to influence attitudes further. In contrast, attitudes
toward science and scientists did change as a result of experiencing Greenland Melting, a topic and group that participants
may have felt more ambivalence for. Although the trend did not reach statistical significance, the virtual experience appears
more impactful on attitudes towards scientists than the video experience. For topics where participants may be ambivalent, a
virtual experience may be a catalyst for changing attitudes.
Second, attitude change for scientists rather than climate change may have been attributable to the content: spending time
engaging with individuals, seeing how they live and what they value, even in a virtual space, may change attitudes toward
that person and groups they represent. Attitudes about an abstract, large-scale issue like glacier melt might not change in
response to an expertly-delivered explanation. Seeing the impact of glacier melt on individuals or communities may be an
alternate path to attitude change about glacier melt and sea level rise.
Participants’ behaviors regarding information search, sharing content, and interest in additional FRONTLINE
content and virtual reality journalism was affected by experiencing Greenland Melting as Room-scale VR.
Particularly for participants who were not regular FRONTLINE viewers, the virtual experience inspired interest in
more content. However, intent to take actions related to climate change were affected no matter which version
of the experience participants had.
For behaviors related to media consumption, the Room-scale virtual experience led to an increased interest in sharing the
content, recommending it to friends, and seeking more, especially if they were not already regular FRONTLINE consumers.
“[Room-scale VR] made the experience come to life in a way that was
shocking...as an educational tool, [VR was] so much more impactful than
looking at it on the computer screen or television.”
“

182

19
GREENLAND MELTING
For behaviors that serve to adapt to or mitigate the influence of
climate change and glacier melt, experiencing Greenland Melting in
any form increased participants’ intent to take specific actions. We
did not see consistent differences based on version.
Sense of immersion was impacted by many different aspects
of the experience, from the technical features, to the
narrative, to individual differences in sense of embodiment
and comfort in the environment. This resulted in very different
experiences for some viewers, including “missing” content;
changes to format and delivery of the content could reduce
or eliminate the aspects of the experience that negatively
impacted immersion.
Participants differed in willingness to explore the space, as well as
experiencing negative physiological responses like nausea. Providing
more control over the sensory experience and rate of information
flow would help address these issues: Refining technical features
like rendering figures in photogrammetry, providing consistent cues
to where participants are in space, and providing mechanisms like
responding to user signals to advance scenes for increased user
control would help tailor this type of experience to each person’s
needs and level of comfort.
Lack of a call to action, or clear sense of what the viewer
could do in the real world in response to Greenland Melting
was frustrating to many participants. Participants sought
action to alleviate their feelings of concern.
Addressing this audience desire should be a deliberate decision
on the part of the content producers in the planning stage.
Frustration for participants could be resolved by including resources
or references to current calls to action, but this has broader
implications for those using VR for journalism as
opposed to advocacy. Such calls to action must
be evaluated on a case-by-case basis; solutions
journalism framings may provide a more satisfying user
experience. Information about organizations working
on issues related to the topic being covered without an
explicit call to action could be shared in order to allow
those who are interested in taking action to explore
options for themselves as a potential “middle ground”
approach.
As in the After Solitary study, when designing a VR
experience, content makers should evaluate how
to balance the user’s need for guidance, and the
opportunity to play a more active role as the editor and
director of their experience.
Participants
experiencing
Greenland Melting
“Just reading studies,
it’s hard to see the
scientists behind the
study. [In the VR] they
seem like a regular
person, more believable...
to see the person gives
[the information] new
meaning.”
“

183

After Solitary’s major success was in leveraging the feeling
of being in a space to better understand Kenny’s experience.
Participants valued the sequence of moments they shared
with Kenny, as well as the real-world footage included in
the experience. The novelty of being in a space they would
not otherwise encounter, paired with Kenny’s presence
as a guide to provide context and personal meaning to
the objects in the space, made for an extremely effective
experience.
The feature of being in a specific, sometimes impossible
space was taken to extremes in Greenland Melting,
to illuminating and challenging ends. Playing with the
boundaries of the plane and helicopter, diving under the
waterline, and watching the landscape transform over time
delighted and impressed participants. The sensation of
floating or flying over the glacier, and the view of Earth at
the opening and close of the experience, offered no point
of reference for participants’ bodies in space, which could
be disorienting. While some participants in After Solitary
expressed a desire to see a reference to their own body
in the space, the dimensions of a small room, furniture,
and Kenny were familiar references for scale, and were
stable over time, so the experience was not as disorienting.
Although participants felt like they were in the environments
of Greenland Melting, these environments changed over
time, and were unfamiliar, making them more challenging to
perceive — but utterly transporting once participants were
acclimated.
One of Greenland Melting’s strengths lay in communicating
ideas with clever visual comparisons. Demonstrating the
retreat of the glacier from 1900 to the present day had a
huge impact on participants. The interactive feature of
dipping below the waterline to observe changes due to
warm water flow, and the demonstration of ice melting in a
glass of water compared to ice melting on a table were also
appreciated.
Navigating the immersive environments could take up
cognitive resources, impeding the participant’s likelihood
of committing facts to memory. In a less immersive
environment, participants could devote their full attention
to absorbing and retaining the factual content of the
experience. Responses to the survey items measuring details
mentioned in Greenland Melting, and participants’ own
reflections during their interviews, supported this idea. While
both versions were effective at communicating key points,
more immersive experiences did not provide the easiest
path to declarative knowledge, or learning facts and figures
(Squire, 1987). However, immersive experiences that are
Participants were deeply moved, and showed how engaged
with the material they were by actively interrogating the facts
and editorial process used to create the experience.
20
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
DISCUSSION

184

responsive or fully interactive may be ideal for procedural knowledge, or “learning how.” Neither After Solitary nor Greenland
Melting were intended to teach procedural knowledge, but the opportunity to develop this form of knowledge may inform
future content development choices.
Future work that emphasizes showing how, or even enabling participants to take part in actions, would leverage the
affordance of this medium. For example, one participant noted that he had spent time with the scientists but didn’t really
understand what they did or what the equipment in the plane was for, and mentioned wanting to follow the depth tracker
to understand how it was used. Alternatively, participants left both virtual reality experiences interested in more content
about the topic, more content from FRONTLINE, and more experiences in the burgeoning genre of virtual reality journalism.
Generating the motivation to explore multimedia content on a variety of platforms, where specific pedagogical or informative
goals can be fulfilled, may be a more impactful outcome for VR than short-term recall of facts.
Impactful moments from After Solitary and Greenland Melting also came from figures sharing personal stories. Moments like
Kenny describing his scars and talking about therapy after his release formed the backbone of After Solitary. Eric Rignot’s
reflections that connected his work to his grandchildren’s lives while VR participants stood next to him in the closing scenes
of Greenland Melting was nearly always mentioned in the interviews that followed the experience. Participants said his story
about his grandchildren helped them understand why Eric pursued this difficult work.
Much of the public conversation about virtual reality and empathy centers on how perspective-taking is a stepping stone to
understanding another person’s experience. For After Solitary, spending a few minutes in Kenny’s shoes did help participants
understand his experience. Greenland Melting focused on participants’ own feelings of spatial presence, and a few personal
connections to nearly the opposite effect: Eric’s comments helped participants contextualize the variety of treacherous,
impossible locations they had visited and information they had learned.
The personal connections to Kenny in After Solitary and Josh Willis or Eric Rignot in Greenland Melting were ultimately
helped by the presence of these figures in each experience, but digital depictions of humans are notoriously difficult, and
what they said left a more positive impression than how they looked. Participants noticed when these figures did not sound,
move or make eye contact in a naturalistic way. Most negative reactions were related to the sense that the scientists did not
know participants were there and did not respond to their presence in the simulation.
However, participants forgave technical artifacts when the content was emotionally engaging. Integrating lighting sources to
more seamlessly blend figures rendered through photogrammetry with the landscape or set; using spatialized audio to match
speakers’ location; and innovations to enable responsive eye contact would have a positive impact on user experiences
users.
Compared to After Solitary, the Greenland Melting experience rewarded and sometimes required participants’ exploration
in the virtual space, but not all participants felt comfortable performing these movements, or recognized the cues to do so.
Other participants roamed extensively throughout the space and reported that this exploration and spatial processing usually
came at the expense of attention to the informational content. Participants in both experiences reported “missing” some
information or elements of the experience.
Finally, the opportunities for perspective-taking, connecting with the perspectives and experiences of the characters, and
trust were very different in each study. The variety of reactions to the scientists as characters in Greenland Melting, and
21
“[In After Solitary] the VR was cool but not very useful as a storytelling device;
the narrative was like a video.Here [in Greenland Melting] the VR experience
was much more substantial, because you got to experience the landscape via
the VR.”
“

185

22
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
the resulting change in attitudes toward science and scientists, represents a promising avenue of future research. This stands
in contrast with reactions to Kenny in After Solitary; while participants mentioned empathy for him specifically, it is unclear
whether that extends to all prisoners or formerly incarcerated people. The scientists in Greenland Melting were representing
a body of knowledge; Kenny was not. A deeper understanding of how much participants identify with key characters, and how
their judgments and motivations rely on their feelings about the characters, would help clarify best practices for stories about
individuals compared to stories about large-scale issues, and help forge connections between those levels of analysis.
It may not be surprising that Room-scale VR participants focused on what the technology was able to do, and how it made
them feel, rather than reciting the contents of the story. These observations align with bodies of literature which outline the
implications of limited cognitive resources, especially when applied to media contexts (Paas, Renkle & Sweller, 2003; Chen &
Chaiken, 1999). We can think of these responses as a proxy for participants’ memory across the different platforms. In a less
immersive environment, participants devoted their full attention to absorbing and retaining the factual content of the experience.
Since navigating the environment and processing spatial information is a more prominent part of the experience while using the
Immersive 360 video and Room-scale VR, fewer cognitive resources are available for committing facts to memory than with the
360 video condition. However, this was a small study, and these observations would need to be more explicitly investigated to
understand how availability of cognitive resources affects memory of an experience like After Solitary or Greenland Melting.
“Whereas solitary confinement was a new experience — I never imagined
myself to be in solitary confinement but the experience itself is just one setting.
[Greenland Melting communicated] ... information, numbers, data in a way
that are not just told to you but you can experience them.”
“

186

● Room-scale VR is the most effective way to create a feeling of “being there.” For environments with unique spatial
characteristics, it creates that feeling to a greater degree than regular video, or even Immersive 360 video. However, the
novelty of the medium creates incentives to explore the space rather than absorb information, and provides enormous
potential for distraction from complex narratives or information-dense sequences. Balancing these characteristics is the
key to developing journalistic content for this medium.
● If participants in virtual reality can control where to look, but cannot interact with objects in the environment, they have
“presence” but not total “agency” — they have a limited ability to influence the environment. Leverage their role as an
active viewer to reward curiosity about the environment. Designing the freedom to explore and discover information,
rather than informational goals and user agency working at cross purposes, is the challenge of the medium.
● Participants in immersive experiences are not familiar with the meaning of editing conventions yet, so it is still important
to clarify the “rules” of the environment. Visual cues about spatial environments, like where the horizon is or where
the walls of a room meet, or using controllers to represent a participant’s hands, can be used to help participants stay
oriented between scenes. Spatial cues in audio input should also be consistent. Unusual spatial positioning or movement
should not be deployed alongside crucial informational content in the event that the participant has an adverse physical
reaction, or is too distracted by the unfamiliar experience to recognize, encode and retain information. For sequences
that integrate significant movement into the experience, mechanisms to detect non-participation and prompting or
alternative choices should be provided.
● Having a character in a virtual experience to provide guidance and context for information was extremely valuable.
Although participants noticed artifacts of the photogrammetry process and wanted each figure’s appearance to be more
naturalistic, the benefits outweigh the costs and provided some of the most the most striking moments of both After
Solitary and Greenland Melting.
● Improving technical and narrative aspects that contribute to or interfere with immersion could improve some outcomes.
For example, using the wireless controllers to trigger the next scene, or tracking participants’ gaze and creating variations
in the execution of the content sequences based on attention, could improve participants’ ability to stay with the flow of
information and not feel like they were “missing out.”
● VR experiences absorb users’ attention for short, intense periods of time. It inspires users to seek more information
afterwards, but is not the most effective medium to commit facts to memory.
● Naive users appreciate VR experiences and are inspired to look for more content after using it, but do not have access
to hardware in everyday life. Distribution remains a challenge; live events are an effective way to build excitement for VR
experiences or capture gatekeepers’ attention, but web-based, sharable content is still the bulk of any piece’s audience.
23
RECOMMENDATIONS

187

Ahn, S. J. G., Bailenson, J. N., & Park, D. (2014). Short-and long-term effects of embodied experiences in immersive virtual
environments on environmental locus of control and behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 235-245.
Ahn, S. J. G., Fox, J., Dale, K. R., & Avant, J. A. (2014). Framing virtual experiences: Effects on environmental efficacy and
behavior over time. Communication Research, 42(6), 839-863.
Dow, S. P. (2008). Understanding user engagement in immersive and interactive stories (Doctoral Dissertation). Georgia
Institute of Technology.
Edwards, K. (1990). The interplay of affect and cognition in attitude formation and change. Journal of Personal & Social
Psychology, 59(2), 202–216.
Gehlbach, H., Marietta, G., King, A. M., Karutz, C., Bailenson, J. N., & Dede, C. (2015). Many ways to walk a mile in another’s
moccasins: Type of social perspective taking and its effect on negotiation outcomes. Computers in Human Behavior, 52,
523-532.
Rosenberg, R. S., Baughman, S. L., & Bailenson, J. N. (2013). Virtual superheroes: Using superpowers in virtual reality to
encourage prosocial behavior. PloS one, 8(1), e55003.
Seymour, N. E., Gallagher, A. G., Roman, S. A., O’brien, M. K., Bansal, V. K., Andersen, D. K., & Satava, R. M. (2002). Virtual
reality training improves operating room performance: results of a randomized, double-blinded study. Annals of Surgery,
236(4), 458-464.
Squire, L.R. (1987). Memory and brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
Watson, Z. (2017). VR for News: The New Reality? (Digital News Project 2017). Retrieved from Reuters Institute for the Study
of Journalism Website: http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/VR%20for%20news%20%20the%20
new%20reality.pdf.
Weisenstein, K. (2016, May 6). Meet the Scientists Using VR to Tackle Climate Change. Vice.com. Retrieved from
https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/ climate-change-vr-scientists.
24
FRONTLINE VIRTUAL REALITY REPORT USC MEDIA IMPACT PROJECT
REFERENCES

188
APPENDIX TWO: VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM GUESTBOOK COMMENTS ON
PROJECT SYRIA, COLLECTED OVER FIVE DAYS

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

236

237

238

239

240

241

242

243
APPENDIX THREE: TEXT BOX RESPONSES ON HOW USERS DEALT WITH SEXUAL
HARASSMENT IN SECOND LIFE

244

1. If not willing or liking it just said to them to back off if insistent in the most clear way...
2. To be clear, I work as a SL Mentor on the Help Islands and am often propositioned by
very new people, especially after news reports of pixel sex in SL. I use it as an opening to
discuss appropriate behaviour in PG areas.
3. so many "pet names" have been used that I've grown completely comfortable with it
4. I told them to go away and leave me alone.
5. Earlier in my SL career (which is a few years long now), I would try to deal with a
"heavy" or insistent flirter by being diplomatic, sweet, and non-offensive. Now, I will not curse,
or grief, but if someone steps out of line with me (or sometimes even in front of me), I will speak
out regarding their activity, and if it's rude, call "a spade, a spade", as it were.
6. Reported indent(s) in private IM to Club Managment or Owner as I was unable to leave
most of the time, for I was DJing.
7. Reported to 911
8. Initially I signed off, then as I learnt more I TPd away, after a few weeks I simply dealt
with it as I would in RL - sarcastically!
9. Laughed at them
10. I told them I was uninterested, and if they were in my home asked them to leave. If they
were persistent and wouldn't take no (only twice) I teleported away.
11. relentlessly changed the subject
12. Told them I was not interested.
13. verbally berated their horrible skills with women and suggested that they use porn
instead.
14. Politely said "not right now, thanks".
15. usually RL I laugh, as there's not much they can do "to" me. I say no thanks nicely or in a
smart-assed way and ignore them. "pusher/boob bumpers" I just sit down they can't move
me then
16. In two instances, a Linden was present, so they were "removed" from the area almost
immediatly.
17. Used polite words and continued about my activities. Declined friendship offer in all
cases
18. Cried and wrote in my live journal.
19. Politely answered I wasn't interested
20. Gave them a LM to a known sex sim, usually hard-core role play.
21. told them that they were acting in asubvertive manner as onewas actually merely
isolatingmyself fom the rest of secondlfie with pprefferential treatments
22. I didn't feel the circumstances warranted any action
23. I do not find flirtatious chatter or jokes offensive, do not object to sexy images. Although
I am not always in the mood for that sort of thing I do not object to being approached in a
sexual context.
24. Did not happen.
25. Flew away into a crowd of green dots,
26. I advised them if that having sex was not my primary reason for being in SL but if it was
what they wanted to do if they used the search button at the bottom of the screen and
searched on sex or any fetish of their choice they would be sure to find what they were

245
after. They moved on either immediately or after minutes. Actually, I may have had a few
additional encounters than first noted but not many and none were stressful due to my
approach. Often newbs have read mainstream media which leads them to believe SL is all
about sex so they just don't realise it isn't, I've never found cause to be rude as everyone
has moved on after I've explained this is not so and directed them to search.
27. told them that I was not interested.
28. Unchecked them as a friend
29. complained of and reported to Linden Labs sexually and racially inappropriate displays
and behavior.
30. Explained I found their behavior offensive and why. Attempted to engage them in non-
sexual conversation.
31. I wore disturbing avatars and they left.
32. Usually I suggest they find what they are looking for in search, pretty easy, after that I
mute them.
33. The first encounter was a rather clumsy seduction attempt w/ emotional manipulation.
The man was anxious that I activate voice, which I was unable to do ... and experienced
as an attempt to increase his control... I extricated myself after about 15 min. The build
was filled with sit balls of an explicit and kinky (bondage) nature and a bed large enough
for a small crowd.
34. Thanked them for thinking my Av was attractive enough to make a pass at! LOL
35. One was already a Friend. It wasn't strong harrasment so I didn't unfriend them, but I
unlclicked all the boxes so they couldn't see when I was online - in fact keeping them a
friend meant that I might be able to see when they were online, thus being able to avoid
them
36. Usually I politely tell them I am not interested.
37. When I'm mentoring on Help Island, I'll tell the person that their comment is
inappropriate. That's because I feel an obligation to protect the other newcomers from
similar comments.
38. Ignored the first one, who was a stranger. The second one, a colleague, I unchecked the
box that allows him to see when I am online so he leaves me alone.
39. Roleplayed, e.g. slapping a guy who touched my breasts.
40. Make a fool of them

TEXT BOX RESPONSES FOR ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

1. I have in my profile the statement I am not looking for relationships beyond friendship.
Helps immensely.
2. Most were very benign and once a conversation was established the encounter became
very favorable.
3. My first encounters was with a person who claimed to be male but preferred female avs.
He had multiple accounts and sought out Christian females. He liked to bring us to his
'sex dungeon' and try to get us to engage in sexual activity. He repeated this pattern with
many residents I know and uses Christian groups to search for targets.
4. I worked as a dancer for a long time, it happened all the time. No big deal really.

246
5. Mostly I just ignored them and they get the idea. Only one I needed to mute him because
he kept IM-ing me all the time.
6. the one encounter with someone I knew was a friend of a colleague. It is the only one that
really creeped me out as I felt that this person was using the pretense of discussion our
field in order to "hook up". Don't like it in RL, don't like it here. At least newbie come
ons are direct.
7. In all but one of two encounters, the harrasser was a brand new avatar
8. Harrassers tend to read Profiles in order to gain more information about my avatar, trying
to get sexual favors.
9. Sometimes I could feel just as much "heat" going into a (non-sexual) lesbian bar when it
came to being hit on, or dj'ing, etc, than if I were in a straight bar. Neither offended me
more, or made me uncomfortable, but the numbers surprised me a little due to
perceptions about women, and particularly lesbians, being more sensitive about such
things.
10. Most of the harassment I experienced was when I was DJing.
11. "she" followed and verbally abused me by IM and open chat for a couple of days. I
figured out who she eventually was and reported it to SL911
12. Initially I was scared they could damage my avatar in some way, once reassured they
could not I had no more problems.
13. My impression about sexual harrassment in SL is that the people doing it are not aware
that there are real PEOPLE on the other side of the avatars they are harassing. It's like a
game. And in all but three of the times I was harrassed, the person soliciting sex or
commenting on my outfit had been in SL only a week or less. So either they were
creating fresh alts specifically to harrass, or they were new and didn't understand the
etiquette yet. I am annoyed by what I perceive as rudeness, but don't feel as annoyed or
threatened as I do in real life.
14. In the time it was same male avatar asking for sex, first time I was with a male friend
who had wandered looking and came back and the guy poofed, and the second I was with
my RL sister and my appearance was different, when I told him I'd met him before and
laughed, he went away. I do get encounters where the guy is too forward for me, asking
to dance when we've just met, asking me to go see his place. The one time I had a woman
come onto me, she said I was pretty and asked if I wanted to dance, the really odd part
was we were in a western RP sim and though I was a female bartender there, that kind of
thing is is still Out Of Character. I was a human then and have been a furry for most of
my SL life and have a Male Furry Partner. I have it on my profile I am a Lady and do not
take friendship from people I do not know. I find it is more of the misconception of
people with human avs toward furs than any fur. I have never had any sexual harassment
from furs, only when I was human by other human avs.Mon, 1/12/09 5:00 PM
15. The encounters didn't bother me much. They were mostly just annoying. I expect them
and have since I joined and found out that SL had sexual animations for sale.
16. Only one of them really rose to a level I would call "harassment". Just "uninvited" +
"sexual" doesn't necessarily mean harassment or even badness in general.
17. I made fun of them. :D
18. SL overall is a very safe environment. I have complete control. I can port away. I can
mute them. I can report them if need be. I choose how much, if at all, of an intrusion they
are, it's wonderful. If only RL were that easy.

247
19. In two instances, a avatar joined a large crowd and began producing pornographic images
and sound.
20. This is something that I feel I can deal with on an individual basis. I choose to wear
clothes I would not wear in RL due to the type of harassment I could receive in RL. At
least in SL I am not physically harmed. I can deal with pixel harassment well. I don't feel
action should be taken by Linden Labs. I feel it is up to each avatar to mute an individual
who shows inappropriate behavior.
21. One turned into a long-distance relationship. The other: hardcore hookups.
22. After I made clear I did not want sexual contact they apologised and we remained friends
up to now. I was new in SL, after these encounters I knew SL is just like RL, there is sex
and you must be clear if you want this or not.
23. Generally, I don't have trouble with people. Occasionally, some who target "anyone" will
approach me. My conflict resolution skills tend to resolve the issue and put people in
their place pretty quick.
24. These encounters have such a wide range, that it is difficult to categorize my response in
one question. For instance, a man wearing a gigantic penis can usually be muted or
ignored, but the person who followed me saying he would "rape my face," was extremely
upsetting.
25. Each and every one of them.... wore a viking helmet...
26. I inexplicably would have people IMing me even if I was in my private skybox alone
27. Secong Life is my 2nd Virtual World experince. It actuallu happened less in the 16 years
I have spent in my text based Virtual World yet still occurred. And honestly no more
frequently then it's happened in physical life and much less threatening.
28. These were for the most part, newcomers who were specifically interested in SL because
of the sexual stories they heard about it.
29. quite often than notthe oddest avatars wor the worst, thenaked avatars werejust quite
andliked topush you, but it is teh furries and Vampires who liek to use sounds and text
that describes your psycology intimatelly and then ban you from places thesefurries are
part of a cult that thinks it is the army of God as are NAzis some catholics and even the
GOreans all consider themselves rullers of the world the thing is they have all paid
security to 'God!'
30. They are common when you've been around second life for more than a few months or
so, I've grown almost numb to them after 3 years.
31. In some cases i agreed to participate because the situation was not enough uncomfortable
(light jokes, suggestive more than aggresive comments).Sun, 1/11/09 11:13 PM
32. The worst were where they tried physical contact, suggestive words don't really bother
me, I just leave, but an attempted rape is disturbing, in sl as well as rl. I don't think
anyone should have to put up with it.Sun, 1/11/09 11:02 PM
33. He represented himself to be from the Middle East. He showed no respect for women. I
was helping he and his friend learn about finding a home in Second Life; explaining
different types of land. He did not appreciate my help. His friend apologized to me.
34. no consent fuck face animation - i was really shaken by that.Sun,
35. I must be lucky, or oblivious.
36. I think it is important to be aware that we are sexual beings and it is a very important part
of us. I do not find sexual harassment offensive, I just deal with it as it arises

248
37. None... though I don't see this survey as being a gender issue per se... I see it as being
about sexual harrassment. The title of the survey is misleading and I would have liked to
know about more about who was doing the survey prior to answering and the topic of the
survey - the actual topic. I continued ONLY because the link to the survey came via a
trusted source.
38. The first instance was a guy just saying something about how pretty I looked but I could
feel how sleezy it was. The second guy came here with a giant penis and was actually
going after one of the guys in our group. I know he was saying some things but I dont
remember what they were. What troubled me more than the penis guy was that the other
men in our group were just laughing and laughing and didn't come to the defense of the
two women there, me and another woman, who were saying we were offended.
39. I never, ever have this sort of thing happen to me when I am Tiny or non human. I dress
down my human to be average, not bimbo-like, I think that is why these encounters have
been rare.
40. In one case it was an actual "rape" altho rather humorous:) The male ava had an
animation that jumped onto me wrapped legs around and ahh pumped hahah I did not
have on shield so had to tp away. That one was reported to LL and banned from estates.
the rest were all minor usually verbal a few gift offers. Maybe 5 times asked to "go to
another place" or directly asked to "be my girlfriend" by a perfect stanger. i assume some
folks must say yes??? I am not here for relationship so I do not have any type of
encouraging behaviors and i dress rather sedately compared to most:) I present as a
professional business woman usually unless dancing which is rare.
41. Native Americans and Native American women in particular are routinely
inappropriately misrepresented as sex objects and sexual slaves in Second Life,
discouraging authentic Native American participation in Second Life.
42. Vampires in particular have crowded my space, along with others just being too pushy
once they friended me.
43. I AM PROKOFY NEVA.
44. I never felt unduly threatened or frightened, occasionally uncomfortable or annoyed. I
know I can always teleport away if someone does something I don't like!
45. Not too important.
46. This is so common to Virtual Worlds of adult nature, it's going to happen. It does in both
worlds, or any worlds I've been to.
47. each was very different, so it's hard to answer these questions generally; the first was
within the first ten minutes, while still more or less a ruth, while another came much
later, and I can only xdescribe as attempted rape
48. Encounter 2. (nearly a year later) I was participating in a weekly group discussion. A
young and fairly new man opened an IM and asked if I would fuck. I outed him in the
larger group and then, when he persisted, muted him.
49. She was going through her friends list, and TPing them to her "house" as she was now an
escort and wanted Lindens for favours to be delivered. Yuck
50. I'm sorry, it seems most of these follow-up questions don't apply to my experience in SL.
51. I tend to hang out in mature-area sims with sexual undertones (such as bisexual meeting
areas) but not in directly sexual areas, so the level of harrassment is probably higher than
in pg areas or non-sexual areas.

249
52. On Help Island, people frequently ask Mentors if they're 'real'....it may be that some of
these men think they're propositioning a robot, that there's not a real woman on the other
side of the keyboard. They may think that I'm a robot put there to entertain them. :)
53. The one I reported was a clear TOS violation. The other I just teleported.
54. All encounters were either remarks on my appearance "you look nice..." (infrequent) or
griefing episodes where sexually-explicit content was caused to rain down on the sim
(this constitutes the vast majority of these encounters, though these too are limited in
number).
55. Allmost all encounters happened when I was helping newbies. It was most frequent
during the media hype about Second Life where Second Life was largely portrayed as a
place to have wild sex. Actually I would maybe even have accepted some of the sexual
offers had they been made in a different place or time (e.g. a club), but it was sometimes
difficult to get across that I was mentoring and not interested in sex while I was doing it.
56. The messages also came with death threats.
57. they were really no important.

250
APPENDIX FOUR: CREATING VIRTUAL REALITY JOURNALISM: A GUIDE FOR BEST
PRACTICES

251

252

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 2/ 39
Introduction
State of the Technology
Opportunities & Challenges
The Research
VR Journalism Guiding Principles
About Us
I N T R O D U C T I O N
At the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, the journalist and filmmaker Nonny de la
Peña debuted what is now recognized as the first documentary produced in
virtual reality.
Presented as part of the New Frontiers section, Hunger in Los Angeles immersed
viewers in the reality of hunger in America. Created with the Unity video game
platform, the piece was experienced through a prototype headset built by an
intern and lab technician named Palmer Luckey at the University of Southern
California, where de la Peña was overseeing the efforts as a research fellow. The
headset allowed visitors to walk around inside a food bank in downtown Los
Angeles and witness a scene from 2009 in which a man collapsed in diabetic shock
while waiting in line.

253

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 3/ 39
Nonny de la Peña
Capable of observing the characters from multiple angles, viewers found
themselves “present” within the experience. “People broke down in tears as they
handed back the goggles,” says de la Peña. “That’s when I knew this tool could let
viewers experience and understand an event in a completely new way.”
Hunger in Los Angeles pioneered a new approach to immersive storytelling in
journalism. Nonny de la Peña went on to establish the virtual reality studio
Emblematic Group and Luckey continued to develop his goggles, eventually selling
his company to Facebook under the name Oculus Rift.
Meanwhile, Raney Aronson-Rath, then-Deputy Executive Producer of the PBS
investigative documentary series FRONTLINE, was exploring emerging media and
new storytelling techniques, challenging the series to push beyond the long-form,
linear films for which it is known.

254

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 4/ 39
Raney Aronson-Rath
In 2014, as a fellow at MIT’s Open Doc Lab, Aronson-Rath began to see how VR
might bring FRONTLINE’s journalism to life in new ways. While recognizing the
promise of VR as a journalistic tool, she also knew it would bring its own set of
ethical and editorial questions and potential challenges to the series’ established
standards and guidelines: “The question became, how do we make certain
FRONTLINE’s VR efforts embody our brand of tough but fair reporting and
filmmaking?,” Aronson-Rath said.
In 2015, the Knight Foundation offered Aronson-Rath, now Executive Producer of
FRONTLINE, the opportunity to collaborate with Emblematic Group and jointly
explore these challenges by producing a series of VR projects and developing a set
of best practices and guidelines for other news organizations working in
the medium.
For the last three years, journalists, producers, designers and engineers from
FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group have worked together to produce two VR
experiences that each deploy the power of fully immersive, room-scale VR in the
service of deeply reported narrative journalism. As part of the initiative, The Media
Impact Project, a research organization at USC’s Annenberg Norman Lear Center
which studies the impact of media on society, conducted testing exploring how the
new technology being used by FRONTLINE and Emblematic engages and
informs audiences.
What follows are the lessons gleaned throughout this collaborative effort, shared
to foster future opportunities for meaningful immersive journalism, and to help
establish standards to guide other journalists and media organizations
participating in this developing field.

255

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 5/ 39
STATE OF THE TECHNOLOGY
T erminology, T ools & T echniques
Virtual reality is one of the most rapidly growing media of our time. Advances are
announced on a near constant basis. New ways of capturing data, of allowing
viewers to interact with content, and of distributing VR present endless
opportunities in this nascent space. Major news organizations working in VR
include The New York Times, which distributed a million Google Cardboard
headsets with its Sunday paper and has made its VR app available on smartphones,
and Time Inc., whose LIFE VR app covers topics including the attack on Pearl
Harbor and an ascent of Mount Everest.
But the very factors that make VR so powerful and innovative—the head-spinning
rate of change and the endless new possibilities for expression—also make it
dauntingly difficult to explain, let alone manage. The range of experiences
available to consumers is vast, from videos that simply offer a spherical field of
view to interactive environments that deploy the artistry and techniques of video
games and animated films.
Producing VR is an even more complex process. Recommendations for the best
360° camera rig can become outdated in a matter of months, making hardware
decisions difficult. Volumetric video recording can sometimes replace an expensive
motion capture session, but it may require an experienced producer to make the
call. The kind of headset that the viewer will use determines the overall parameters
of any given piece, meaning even the earliest ideation session must be informed
by an awareness of the distribution plan and the capabilities of the
various platforms.
Part of the challenge is that even the terminology is in flux and still being defined.
The term “virtual reality” is often used to refer to both 360° videos and
“volumetric” VR pieces, which are in turn referred to by some as “room-scale” or

256

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 6/ 39
“walk-around” or “true” VR. There are also multiple terms for production
techniques, such as “volumetric video capture” versus “videogrammetry.”
As a modest first step toward making things a little more understandable, we have
taken a stab at defining some key terms. Although we may be a long way off from
a uniform, integrated production and distribution system, we can at least begin to
craft a shared language that lets us agree on what it is that we are trying
to achieve.
Below is a brief glossary of key terms with definitions. Each comes with the caveat
that these definitions are porous, subject to slightly varying interpretations and
also liable to be replaced or left behind, especially as the technology advances and
new forms of hardware and software become available.
P r esence
This is the single defining characteristic of virtual reality; the way in which, thanks
to a certain combination of sensory input, your mind can trick your body into
feeling as though it is somewhere else. Though “presence” has already become a
clichéd term, the phenomenon is not a fad, a novelty or a gimmick. It is an
established field of neuroscience, with both its positive and negative potential
debated by academics around the world. The various factors that affect the level
of presence achieved—from visual detail to frame rate to the quality of a
character’s body language—have been tracked in this study. Others have written
about some of the warnings such as this one on the dangers of a medium that can
tap so directly into our central nervous system.

257

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 7/ 39
Presence: A viewer experiencing Hunger in Los Angeles at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival gets down on
his knees as he approaches a seizure victim.
Empathy
This is another well-documented phenomenon (and much-used term). Feeling
present in an experience generates empathy on the part of the viewer toward the
characters depicted. A number of clinical studies, as well as a large body of
anecdotal evidence, shows that viewers have a stronger emotional response to a
scene witnessed in VR than they do to one watched on a 2D screen.
360° Video (or Cinematic VR)
Video that captures a spherical field of vision, allowing the viewer to look in any
direction as if they were at the center of a globe. Although this creates a certain
degree of immersion, the viewer is tethered in that central spot; they cannot alter

258

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 8/ 39
their position within the environment. 360° video is the most accessible variant of
VR. In its simplest form, it is viewable using only a mobile phone: By either swiping
on the image to change orientation or waving the phone around in the air (“magic
window”), the viewer can take in the entire field of view. Greater levels of presence
for 360° video can be achieved by using a headset—either a standalone device
with a built-in screen, or a peripheral into which the user can insert their
own phone.
Volumetric VR (aka Room-Scale or Walk-
Around VR)
Any experience in which the viewer can move freely inside the environment,
examining the scene from different viewpoints and observing characters from
different angles, can fall under this label. It requires a defined physical space in
which the viewer can roam (hence “room scale”) as well as external sensors that
track the position of the headset, allowing it to adjust what the viewer sees in real
time based on their position. A newer generation of headsets features outward-
facing sensors mounted on the primary device, thus obviating the need for
separate external sensors.
Traditionally, the only means of creating volumetric environments has been via
video game platforms such as Unity and Unreal. Since these have been built using
computer graphics (CG), they have not attained the same level of realism as 360°
video. Hence the trade-off: visual verisimilitude versus the ability to move.
However, new techniques such as photogrammetry and volumetric video now
promise the best of both worlds: fully 3D environments and characters that
achieve the same level of visual detail as traditional still images and video footage.

259

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 9/ 39
Interior and exterior locations from Kiya, an Emblematic Group/New York Times production about a fatal
domestic violence incident in North Charleston, S.C. At left are photographs; at right are the
CG recreations
Spatial Narrative
Journalism often aims to communicate, to its best ability, what happened and
when. Volumetric VR is uniquely able to convey these parameters—the distance
between a shooter and his victim, for example, or the exact sight lines afforded by
a particular vantage point.

260

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 10/ 39
Above: A selection of still images used to construct the volumetric environment for Emblematic Group’s
Use of Force. Below: A CG model of a border guard, placed inside the 3D scene.
Pho togr amme try
A means of capturing 3D spaces in high-resolution photographic detail. The
photographer takes multiple images from multiple points within the environment;
a postproduction process triangulates each of those images relative to each other,
creating a geometrically precise “mesh” onto which the images are mapped. The
result is a virtual environment in which the viewer can walk around, captured at a
level of detail that rivals still photography.

261

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 1 1 / 39
A solitary confinement cell in Maine State Prison captured using photogrammetry for After Solitary, the
first collaboration between FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group
Detail from After Solitary
Volumetric Video Capture
(aka Videogrammetry)

262

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 12/ 39
A technique for recording people “in the round,” volumetic video or
videogrammetry uses an array of more than 50 video cameras, usually in a
dedicated lab. The result is a near-video-quality 3D figure that can be viewed from
any angle, even as it moves. The potential for placing these figures into a
volumetric environment opens up huge possibilities for the level of realism
achievable in volumetric VR.
A volumetric video capture session at the 8i studio in Los Angeles. More than 50 cameras capture the
subject from all angles before the video is stitched together.
Na u s e a
One of the most common misconceptions about VR is that the medium itself
causes motion sickness. This is generally not the case. While a small percentage of
viewers do have a mild reaction to any kind of immersion in VR, the vast majority
of cases are caused by a simple mistake on the part of the director: the use of

263

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 13/ 39
extended tracking shots. If a viewer’s eyes tell them they are moving while their
inner ear registers that they are standing (or sitting) stock still, the resulting
disconnect will usually—though not always—result in a sensation of nausea.
Embodimen t
The level of immersion achieved in volumetric VR, where the viewer’s physical
movements determine their position within the experience. One of the most
powerful examples of the phenomenon is the way in which placing a viewer close
to a precipice generates an intense feeling of vertigo. Many viewers have to be
coaxed to step “off the ledge,” even though they know that there is no actual drop
in front of them.
Gamifica tion
The practice of using elements and functionality commonly used in video games in
order to illustrate and illuminate “real-world” situations and events, often making
use of the hand controllers that are included with volumetric headsets such as the
HTC Vive.
Di m e n s i o n a l i z ed
Dimensionalized assets were originally captured flat and through interpretation
converted to 3D objects. In Greenland Melting, the final scene was filmed with
360º video and not captured using photogrammetry or other 3D capture methods.
Since it was necessary for users to be able to walk in the scene, 3D information had
to be interpreted and created using the flat information available. First, a high-
resolution still was rendered from the 360º stitching software and used as a
texture for an artist to add 3D mesh information to ZBrush software. Combining

264

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 14/ 39
this 3D mesh and high-resolution texture created the final result of a volumetric
rocky surface with real captured texture from the surface of Greenland.
Parallax
Parallax is a key trait of volumetric VR and provides a sense of dimension. In the
real world, when people move, they see different angles of an object. In walk-
around VR, the user sees different angles of the same object that may be
obfuscated from one singular point of view. For example, when the user is in the
research station of the boat, they are able to see underneath the desk. In 360º
video experiences, the user is fixed in one point of view with a panoramic video
around them and no effect of parallax since they cannot move. Dimensionalization
of 360º assets described above is important to continue the effect of parallax.
OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES
Case Studies from the Field
In 2016, FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group set out to explore the best ways to tell
deeply reported, narrative stories deploying the immersive power of VR. Each
collaboration represented a progression in both scope and technique. After Solitary
was a relatively passive experience with a single character and fewer
environments. Greenland Melting went further by enabling teleportation and
incorporating multiple characters and environments.
At every stage of the process, meticulous attention was paid to the ethical and
editorial challenges arising from these projects. The desire to create a compelling
experience had to be balanced with the essential need to convey the story
accurately, fairly, and with journalistic integrity. Since VR grants viewers the

265

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 15/ 39
opportunity to experience a story firsthand, there was a critical need for
transparency about the recreated nature of the various scenes presented, a
consideration that factored heavily into many creative decisions.
Below is a detailed look at the various challenges that arose throughout the
production of each project, as well how each was solved.
As FRONTLINE and Emblematic began brainstorming suitable stories to explore in
this medium, a piece about solitary confinement immediately became a
strong candidate.
FRONTLINE producers Dan Edge and Lauren Mucciolo had spent years
documenting the topic, with unprecedented access to the Maine State Prison. Their
films were groundbreaking and thorough, but both were aware of one major
limitation: There was simply no way to capture the visceral experience of having
been there in person.

266

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 16/ 39
With this in mind, the team set out to create an immersive piece on solitary
confinement. A former inmate would be interviewed using videogrammetry, and
the resulting 3D, hologram-like figure would be inserted into an ultra-realistic, 3D
solitary confinement cell, captured via photogrammetry. This would allow viewers
to feel as though they were actually in the cell with the subject, hearing the story
firsthand. While VR provided a unique means of documenting and illuminating this
controversial practice, the production process raised a number of technological,
editorial and ethical challenges and questions.
Filming Interviews
To be interviewed using videogrammetry, the interviewee needed to travel to Los
Angeles to be filmed in a specialized green-screen studio outfitted with more than
40 cameras. This posed several challenges. Many inmates who had recently served
time in solitary were on probation and subject to travel restrictions, and some of
the guards could not take time off to fly across the country.
For the interview to be filmed in an ethical manner, the subject needed to be able
to travel, to be made aware of the technologies in use, and to be comfortable
sharing his experience in a unique way that would place him in a virtual solitary
confinement cell.
With those parameters in mind, producer Lauren Mucciolo spent months speaking
with dozens of former inmates, ultimately landing on Kenny Moore, a recently
released man who appeared to be well-suited for the project. Moore was not
bound by any travel restrictions and was an avid video game user, already familiar
with the technology the team would be using to tell the story. Moore expressed
particular interest in sharing his experiences in VR, stating that he believed doing
so could help better educate others. Still, because Moore had experienced paranoia
and mental instability during and after his time in solitary, the team flew his

267

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 17/ 39
girlfriend—his primary emotional support—to L.A. to accompany him to
the interview.
Once Moore agreed to participate as the central character, the team faced another
ethical decision: What should he wear during his interview? Some thought it would
create a more immersive experience for Moore to be in a jumpsuit like the one he’d
worn in prison; others believed that, because the hologram of Moore would appear
within his original cell, it was important for viewers to understand that Moore was
no longer in solitary confinement and was not actually in the cell during the
interview. There was also a concern that donning the jumpsuit could be a
psychological trigger for Moore. In an effort to be transparent, accurate and fair to
Moore, the team asked him to wear his everyday clothes for his interview.
The team also was careful to conduct and edit Moore’s interview in a way that
made clear he was not presently in the cell, but was speaking retrospectively about
his experiences.
Building the Story Environments
The team wanted the 3D story environments—the cell, Moore’s current bedroom,
and other spaces viewers would explore—to be as realistic and accurate as
possible. Thanks to FRONTLINE’s unprecedented access to Maine State Prison, the
team was able to capture one of the cells in which Moore had served time using
photogrammetry. Producers also found some of the objects that had been in
Moore’s cell—for example, a standard-issue tube of toothpaste and a pair of
sandals—and placed them back in the space for filming. The photogrammetry was
carried out by the pioneering German company Realities.io.
To communicate the sense of confinement in the cell, the team also took
advantage of the technical limitations of the HTC Vive headset, which allows
viewers to move around only within a defined 10’ by 10’ space.

268

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 18/ 39
After viewing After Solitary, many viewers remarked that they felt as though they
had visited an actual solitary cell. Many were observed looking out the window,
examining the metal toilet, trying to see their own reflections in the mirror, and
even attempting to sit on the cot.
Animations and Recreations
Computer-generated (CG) animations were paired with Moore’s testimony to bring
different aspects of his experience to life. For example, to demonstrate the
technique described by Moore in his interview as “fishing”—in which inmates use a
paper kite to pass small objects back and forth beneath cell doors—the team relied
on 2D footage and audio filmed for the original FRONTLINE documentary, along
with Moore’s description, to replicate the look, speed and sound of the kite as it
moves in and out of the room.
While reporting the original documentary, producers found that many solitary
inmates engage in self-harming behaviors, something that researchers point to as

269

270

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 20/ 39
Stories of climate change often feel distant and intangible. They focus on faraway
places and events that (in some cases) won’t be felt directly for centuries to
come. As a result, the team believed an exploration of the topic using the VR
medium could be uniquely fruitful.

271

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 21/ 39
When FRONTLINE producer Catherine Upin learned that a team from NASA was
traveling to Greenland to conduct groundbreaking research on the country’s
melting ice sheets, the team decided it was an ideal project for the second piece
and set out to use cutting-edge VR technology to bring the story to life in a
visceral and immediate manner. Knowing the story needed to be rooted in some
important and yet complex science concepts, FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group
partnered with PBS’ award-winning science television series NOVA to help tell the
story and vet the science.
The resulting project, Greenland Melting, utilized various emerging technologies
and brought many new challenges to the fore. What follows is a discussion of the
various obstacles faced and solutions reached throughout production.
Building the Story Environments
FRONTLINE and Emblematic learned of NASA’s trip to Greenland with just a week’s
notice. It was the researchers’ last expedition of the year, as Greenland would be
inaccessible for the rest of the long winter season.
The team knew that traveling to the remote glaciers of Greenland would be
difficult under any circumstance, but doing so on short notice, and with an
extraordinary amount of specialized equipment in tow, proved exceptionally
challenging. While the project was intended to be shot primarily using
photogrammetry, so that viewers could walk around and explore the landscapes,
there were a number of challenges, including complicated weather conditions and
severe time constraints, , that prohibited the team from capturing every
environment in this way.
As a result, the nine different locations in Greenland Melting were created using a
mix of formats and techniques, from photogrammetry to dimensionalized 360°
video to high-fidelity CG model recreations. Two additional partners, Realtra and

272

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 22/ 39
xRez Studios, worked alongside Emblematic engineers on the photogrammetry
capture and modeling. In addition, xRez worked closely with Emblematic to
employ NASA bathymetry data to build the underwater visualization.
The aerial glacier photogrammetry proved both technically difficult and costly.
Shooting the scene required flying by helicopter for more than two hours across
one of the most remote and unpredictable weather areas in the world. When the
team flew across the fjord to capture the photogrammetry of the glacier from
above, the pilot informed the production crew that if they had to ditch the
helicopter, they would not survive in the ice-filled water. Despite the various
challenges, the team was able to document the glacier successfully.
Because of time constraints, the production team was unable to capture NASA’s
research vessel using photogrammetry while in Greenland, but they felt it was
essential to find a way to do so after the fact. Photogrammetry would allow
viewers to virtually walk on the ship’s deck and explore the cabins where key
experiments had taken place.
The team ultimately secured permission to photograph the ship for modeling in a
bay in the Netherlands, where it came in to dock for just a few hours. Despite the
severe time constraints, a local photographer, Thomas Van Damme, skilled in the
art of taking the essential imagery, was able to shoot the necessary material. But
there was still one large problem: If a viewer looked over the sides of the boat
using the imagery as captured, they’d see a Dutch bay rather than the arctic fjord
in which NASA had conducted its research.
To recreate the fjord in which the vessel had been anchored, the team undertook a
highly innovative combination of the 360° footage captured on site with 2D
images taken by the field producers. The result was a dimensionalized version of
the scene in which the 3D model of the boat could be placed. The team also used
NASA maps to pinpoint the vessel’s exact location during the trip. The result is a
breathtaking and accurate rendition of the environment, with the single caveat

273

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 23/ 39
being that the icy rocks surrounding the fjord are slightly less clear than if they
had been captured via photogrammetry.
Below are examples of the various techniques that were used.
Dimensionalized 360° Video
As noted previously, the main challenge with Greenland Melting was creating a
consistent volumetric experience, despite the fact that some of the exterior scenes
were only captured in 360° video. For the scene in front of the research modules
(below), the team found a way of adding volume to 360° video, extrapolating
information from the original footage to add depth to the rocks and snow.
The source footage was dimensionalized using a tool called ZBrush. The result
allows a viewer to walk around on a 3D surface from which rocks protrude. The
original 360° video is projected as a sky dome that meets the flat surface at
the horizon.

274

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 24/ 39
The original 360° video is pictured above, with the final volumetric scene below.
After the terrain had been dimensionalized, some elements—the research pods
behind the scientists—still had to be recreated using CG modeling in order for the
environment to have consistent parallax qualities. The final scene combines 360°
video (of the sky), a CG model (of the research pods), and volumetric 8i capture (of
the scientists).

275

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 25/ 39
Additionally, 3D data visualizations were layered over the volumetric
environments, with dimensional graphics helping to illustrate and articulate the
various factors scientists have documented as accelerating the melting process. For
example, in one sequence, viewers can lower their heads to gain an underwater
view, in which 3D colored arrows chart the flows of warm water that are eating
away at the glaciers from below.

276

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 26/ 39
360° Video Backdrops
To convey the scale of Greenland’s ice sheets, the team wanted to include a flyover
scene shot from a helicopter. But in 360° video, extended tracking shots tend to
induce motion sickness. The solution was to create a CG model of the interior of
the helicopter and embed it in the center of the video. The viewer’s ability to move
around this space alleviates the tension between visual and inner-ear cues that
usually generates nausea, and thus allows a more comfortable appreciation of
the scene.
The various Greenland environments were built using a complex combination of
techniques and sources, and yet appear seamless and realistic. To avoid misleading
the audience, the team chose to foreground the nature of the process by using a
text card at the beginning of the piece.
Animated Elements

277

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 27/ 39
Recreating environments using CGI raised questions about what elements (if any)
could be layered into these spaces without misleading the audience. For example,
much of NASA’s research took place beneath the water’s surface, but how could
the team accurately recreate the ocean floor without having seen it? Ultimately, in
order to illustrate the researchers’ key finding—the way that warm ocean water is
eroding the glaciers from beneath—the team used NASA’s bathymetry data to
create a CG model, which illustrated the flow of the water using animated arrows.
The scene’s “infographic” quality reduces the risk of misleading viewers into
thinking they are seeing actual underwater footage.
This animation came with another key challenge: How would viewers know to look
beneath the ocean surface to see it? The team decided that when the scene
opened, viewers would find themselves submerged in the water up to their waist;
shortly after, a narrator suggests the viewer “try bending down to take a
look” below.
Animated Photogrammetry

278

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 28/ 39
As a 3D composite of still images, photogrammetry is generally, by definition,
static. But in Greenland Melting, we were able to animate individual
photogrammetry models to great effect. Above, NASA scientist Josh Willis ejects a
data-gathering probe into the water.
This was done through scanning the instrument on its own at Emblematic and
carefully cleaning up the data to make sure the reproduced model was accurate.
Filming Interviews
In order for NASA researchers Eric Rignot and Josh Willis to appear 3D and
guide viewers through the story, they needed to be filmed at 8i’s studio in L.A.,
where interviews are captured using more than 40 synced cameras. The process
creates massive amounts of data, making it both financially prohibitive and
technologically complicated. As a result, interviews cannot run longer than 40
minutes. And because the material cannot be edited down using traditional
techniques such as cutaways, each piece of footage used in a final project must
be pulled from one continuous take. These technical limitations proved
particularly challenging in Greenland Melting. The researchers were used to
speaking about their experiments in scientific terms that can be difficult for a
broader audience to absorb. Because the team would not have the option of
editing answers for length and clarity after the fact, they had to prepare Rignot
and Willis beforehand, working with the scientists to achieve usable,
comprehensible responses before and during the interview itself. It took rigorous
preparation and directing to ensure the interviewees communicated in a clear and
concise way without altering the meaning of their statements.
In addition, the tense in which the scientists spoke during the interview was
carefully considered in an effort to signal to viewers that the interviews had not
actually taken place in the various environments in which the 3D models appeared.
Moreover, Josh Willis felt it was imperative to be reproduced inside the 3D model

279

280

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 30/ 39
Exploring the Role of Virtual Reality in Journalism
While researchers have demonstrated several effects of virtual experiences, we
know far less about how users interact with immersive journalism. Past research
has found that virtual experiences can improve a surgeon’s skills during real
operations, change the outcome of negotiations, and increase pro-environmental
and pro-social behavior (Ahn, Bailenson, & Park, 2014; Gehlbach et al., 2015;
Rosenberg, Baughman, & Bailenson, 2013; Seymour et al., 2002).
Researchers have attributed these effects to VR’s ability to evoke presence,
encourage perspective taking, and give participants a sense of being in control of
their environment. This ability to give users a chance to experience a new
perspective, and the consequences of taking on that perspective, are especially
significant for journalistic content. Journalism serves multiple purposes, including
the accurate informing of the public about current issues and the framing of public
conversations to facilitate active civic participation (Tofel, 2014).
By placing users within specific events and giving them a degree of agency,
immersive VR could encourage the creation of new emotional connections
between viewers and the events being depicted (Gajsek, 2016). Studying the
unique immersive characteristics of VR is an important step toward understanding
how this new technology compares to linear media in informing and engaging
audiences on important social issues.
In After Solitary and Greenland Melting, FRONTLINE and Emblematic explored new
ways to use VR to draw audiences into journalistic content. Both pieces capitalized
on VR’s potential to give audiences a chance to visit unfamiliar places and
perspectives. By placing users at the center of the story and giving them a degree
of agency, virtual experiences upend traditional methods for telling journalistic
stories and encourage a closer emotional connection to the events depicted.

281

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 31/ 39
In spring 2017, University of Southern California’s Media Impact Project (MIP)
partnered with Emblematic Group and FRONTLINE to evaluate After Solitary and
Greenland Melting. Both pieces were developed for use in room-scale VR as well as
360° and immersive 360º video. The goal of the research was to investigate
participants’ responses to a journalistic experience in virtual reality. MIP set out to
answer the following questions:
1. What is the general viewer response to a VR journalism experience?
2. What (if any) differences are there between viewing the same content in room-
scale VR and less immersive technologies (e.g., 360º video, 2D video), especially
in terms of people’s experience, knowledge, attitudes and intended
future behaviors?
To test these questions, MIP recruited research participants, randomly assigned
them to experience the stories in room scale and other platforms such as 360º
video and 2D video, and, through surveys and interviews, captured what the
participants thought, felt and were likely to do in response to these stories.
Here is a brief overview of what MIP found:
After Solitary Key Findings:
After Solitary’s key success was in using the virtual space to connect
participants with Kenny’s physical state and emotional journey.
After Solitary inspired interest in VR journalism.
Room-scale VR was the most effective platform for creating a sense of
spatial presence.
It is not clear if attitude and behavior changes differ by platform; all the
participants’ self- reports indicated more knowledge, interest and intent to
take actions.

282

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 32/ 39
Medium matters: Participants using room-scale VR focused on their own
perspective and experiences, but participants who used 360º video took the
perspective of outsiders looking in and commented on details of Kenny’s story.
Greenland Melting Key Findings:
Greenland Melting’s key success was in using the virtual space to demonstrate
specific concepts by using time lapse or by placing users in physically
impossible perspectives to make visual comparisons.
Participants preferred the room-scale VR experience more and felt more spatial
presence using it, even though the video was easier to use.
Participants who experienced the VR version first were more likely to report an
emotional response to the material, including being “unsettled,” “concerned”
and “frightened.” Other changes in attitudes or behavior, however, did not
follow a clear pattern.
Compared to participants in the 2D version, VR participants did not do as well
on the knowledge questions. Because participants were absorbed in exploring
the virtual space, they had fewer resources to process the facts.
More research is needed to align the affordances of virtual reality platforms with
the needs of users, and the goals of journalists and creators.
MIP offers the following recommendations
to those pursuing VR journalism:
Room-scale VR is the most effective way to create a feeling of “being there.”
For environments with unique spatial characteristics, it creates that feeling to a
greater degree than regular video, or even Immersive 360º video. However, the
novelty of the medium creates incentives to explore the space rather than to
absorb information, and provides enormous potential for distraction from

283

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 33/ 39
complex narratives or information-dense sequences. Balancing these
characteristics is the key to developing journalistic content for this medium.
If participants in virtual reality can control where to look, but cannot interact
with objects in the environment, they have “presence” but not total “agency”;
in other words, they have a limited ability to influence the environment. Their
role as an active viewer must be leveraged to reward curiosity about the
environment. Designing with an eye toward the freedom to explore and
discover information, rather than having informational goals and user agency
working at cross-purposes, is the challenge of the medium.
Participants in immersive experiences are not yet familiar with the meaning of
editing conventions, so it is still important to clarify the “rules” of the
environment. Visual cues about spatial environments, like where the horizon is
or where the walls of a room meet, or using controllers to represent a
participant’s hands, can be used to help participants stay oriented between
scenes. Spatial cues in audio input should also be consistent. Unusual spatial
positioning or movement should not be deployed alongside crucial
informational content in the event that the participant has an adverse physical
reaction, or is too distracted by the unfamiliar experience to recognize, encode
and retain information. For sequences that integrate significant movement into
the experience, mechanisms to detect non-participation and prompting or
alternative choices should be provided.
Having a character in a virtual experience to provide guidance and context for
information is extremely valuable. Although participants noticed artifacts of
the photogrammetry process and wanted each figure’s appearance to be more
naturalistic, the benefits outweigh the costs and provided some of the most
the most striking moments in both After Solitary and Greenland Melting.
Improving technical and narrative aspects that contribute to or interfere with
immersion could improve some outcomes. For example, using the wireless
controllers to trigger the next scene, or tracking an individual’s gaze and
creating variations in the execution of the content sequences based on

284

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 34/ 39
attention, could improve participants’ ability to stay with the flow of
information and not feel like they were “missing out.”
VR experiences absorb users’ attention for short, intense periods of time. These
experience inspire users to seek more information afterward, but is not yet
known whether it is the most effective medium to commit facts to memory, as
the novelty of the spectacle can be distracting.
New users appreciate VR experiences and are inspired to look for more content
after using it, but they do not have access to hardware in everyday life.
Distribution remains a challenge. Live events are an effective way to build
excitement for VR experiences or capture gatekeepers’ attention, but Web-
based, sharable content is still the bulk of any piece’s audience. New efforts in
WebVR distribution are underway, but, at the time of their production, these
efforts were not yet technologically advanced enough to support playback of
Greenland Melting or After Solitary.
Read the full report here
VR JOURNALISM GUIDING
PRINCIPLES
Virtual reality journalism is an emerging genre, practiced by innovative storytellers
who regularly encounter new ethical and editorial issues, as demonstrated in the
case studies above. These guidelines are informed by the experiences and insights
of these early practitioners, who have negotiated some of the thorniest issues
presented by this immersive medium to date. They are not intended to be
comprehensive, nor could they be. They are based upon existing, widely adopted
ethical standards and practices from other media, and will sound familiar to
journalists who have worked for reputable news organizations. Just as with other

285

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 35/ 39
media, journalists working in VR are encouraged to seek guidance and feedback on
these issues from senior editorial managers and colleagues when ethical
issues arise.
VR is a powerful medium, combining visual, aural and physical material to create an
intensely immersive, informative and emotional experience. Producers should
always consider this extraordinary potential impact and strive to use it in a way
that satisfies the traditional standards of journalism: accuracy, fairness
and transparency.
A ccur acy
1. As in all journalistic media, the core value of VR journalism is accuracy. The
layers of visuals and sounds comprising a 3D environment must present the
viewer with an accurate representation of reality.
2. In creating a 3D environment, producers should consult multiple sources in
recreating such environments to ensure the original space is
accurately represented.
3. As a general rule, while VR producers must often adjust images in a 3D
environment for scale and proportionality, elements within the images should
not be added, subtracted or rearranged in a way that is not supported by the
facts. If an element is placed into an environment for storytelling purposes that
does not appear in the original space, producers must make it clear to viewers
that this has taken place.
4. Natural sound and sound effects are often used to create a more authentic and
immersive 3D experience. Sound should only be added or edited if it helps
convey an accurate understanding of the scene or story to the viewer.
5. Music should be appropriate and in keeping with the narrative. As with other
sound effects, VR producers should guard against using music that will create
an impression for the viewer that is either distorted or inaccurate.

286

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 36/ 39
6. Current procedural and technological limitations make it challenging to capture
every scene or element within a VR story in 3D. As a result, the use of
animation, re-creation and dramatizations can be very effective and, in many
cases, necessary. In some instances, viewers may be confused as to the
authenticity of these elements. In any situation that presents a risk of
confusion or misleading viewers, they should be clearly labeled or
otherwise signaled.
F airness
1. As with all ethical journalism, VR producers must treat their subject matter and
the people featured in the piece fairly in order to ensure the credibility of
the report.
2. Early research suggests that viewers may identify more strongly with
perspectives presented in VR than to more traditional, 2D media. While fairness
does not demand that equal time be accorded to all conflicting viewpoints or
opinions, it does require the acknowledgment and responsible statement of
significant conflicting views. In presenting alternate viewpoints, producers
should keep in mind that research suggests viewers may not register some
forms of data, including titles and voice-overs, in a VR experience, as a result of
being preoccupied by the visceral, physical sensation of “being there.” As
viewers become more accustomed to the medium, this effect may diminish, but
more research to determine whether this is indeed the case is required.
3. While a viewer’s agency within a walk-around 3D environment can create a
more immersive experience, the audience may miss key facts or pieces of
information if they choose not to explore or interact with certain story
elements. Producers may find it helpful to use tools such as text, sound and
light to alert viewers to such key elements, and/or find ways to ensure they are
communicated regardless of a viewer’s choice to interact.
4. Because of the visceral impact of a virtual reality experience, producers should
consider providing appropriate warnings if the production includes scenes that

287

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 37/ 39
may be shocking, gruesome, explicit or sensitive. And, as with any kind of
journalism, producers should be sensitive to the potential impact of the story
on people featured in it or on those close to them; e.g., victims of violence or
their families. In many cases, producers and editors may find it appropriate to
blur such images or to depict them in a stylized way.
T r anspar ency
1. Because VR can give viewers the agency to explore a story firsthand, they may
be unaware of the extent to which a piece has been intentionally directed and
designed. In an effort to address this, producers should be transparent about
their production techniques and how those techniques impact the perception
of reality or recreations. In all cases, a guiding principle should always be to
avoid misleading viewers. Many news organizations provide stories
accompanying VR productions to explain to viewers how the piece was
produced and answer likely questions about the authenticity of the story.
Alternatively, these disclosures can be provided by whatever means will ensure
that viewers have a clear understanding.
2. Current technological limits require 3D interviews to be succinct and that each
bite of sync used is from one continuous take. As a result, producers must
sometimes prep interviewees more extensively than they would in more
conventional mediums. In doing so, producers should have a goal of helping an
interviewee communicate clearly and concisely, without changing the meaning
of their statements. In cases in which significant prep work has been required
for an interview, this process should be disclosed to viewers.
ABOUT US

288

3/ 21/ 2019 a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port /
ht t p: / / a pps .front l i ne .or g/ vr -re port / 38/ 39
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series,
explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has
won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 89 Emmy Awards
and 20 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and Google+ to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced by
WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is
provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is
provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, The John and Helen
Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support
from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.
Emblematic Group creates award-winning immersive content powered by
proprietary technology. Founded in 2011 by VR pioneer Nonny de la Peña,
Emblematic has been a leader in volumetric storytelling and one of the world’s
premiere producers of virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Hunger in Los Angeles
was the first ever VR documentary to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in
2012. Since then, the company has built a critically acclaimed body of work that has
included tracking the chaos of the Syrian civil war; capturing the tension of a
wheel change during the Singapore Grand Prix; and conveying the scope and scale
of climate change. Emblematic partners with organizations including Google,
Mozilla, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to create both tools and
content that enlighten, empower and educate audiences.
A c kn o wledgemen ts
This project was funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through a
grant to investigate best practices and the ethics of immersive virtual reality
journalism. We thank Knight Foundation for its generous support.

289
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ananthaswamy, A. (2007). A Life Less Ordinary Offers More Than Just Escapism, New
Scientist
Augé, Marc. (1992). Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.
Translated by John Howe, Verso, 1995.
Bachelard, Gaston. (1958) The Poetics of Space. Translated by Maria Jolas, Beacon Press,
1994.
Bailenson, J.N. & Beall, A.C. (2005). Transformed Social Interaction: Exploring the Digital
Plasticity of Avatars. In Schroeder, R. & Axelsson, A.’s (Eds.), Avatars at Work and
Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, Springer-Verlag.
Body Transfer in Virtual Reality. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10564
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010564
Brenton, Harry, Marco Gillies, Daniel Ballin, and David Chatting. (2005) The Uncanny Valley:
Does It Exist? In Proceedings of Conference of Human Computer Interaction, Workshop
on Human Animated Character Interaction. Citeseer.
Callaway, Ewen. (2009, 6 Nov). How your brain sees virtual you. New Scientist.
Carus, Carl. (1831). Gustavus Neun Brief über Landschaftsmalerei, geschrienben in den Jahren
1815. Leipzig: Fleischer. Translated by Andreas Dorschel in a lecture given at the Alpine
Institute, August 2017.
Clark, A. (2003). Natural-Born Cyborgs – Minds, technologies, and the future of human
intelligence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Damasio, Antonio R. (1994). Descartes' error: emotion, reason, and the human brain. New
York: Putnam.
De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. (1984). Translated by Steven Rendall,
University of California Press, 1988.
De la Peña, Nonny, Peggy Weil, Joan Llobera, Elias Giannopoulos, Ausiàs Pomés, Bernhard
Spanlang, Doron Friedman, Maria V. Sanchez--‐Vives, and Mel Slater. (2010). “Immersive
Journalism: Immersive Virtual Reality for the First Person Experience of News,”
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 19 no. 4: 291 – 301.
De la Peña, Nonny. (2012). Hunger in Los Angeles. Immersive journalism experience putting
people on the street in Los Angeles at a food bank when a man waiting in the long line
for food collapses into a diabetic. Premiered at Sundance in January of 2012.
De la Peña, Nonny. (2014). Embodied Digital Rhetoric: Soft Selves, Plastic Presence, and the
Nonfiction Narrative. In Gustav Verhulsdonck and Marohang Limbu (eds): Digital
Rhetoric and Global Literacies: Communication Modes and Digital Practices in the
Networked World. Hershey, IGI Global. 312-327.
De la Peña, Nonny. (2014). Project Syria. . Immersive journalism experience putting people on
the street of Aleppo and then in a refugee camp. Commissioned by the World Economic
Forum and premiered there in January 2014.
De la Peña, Nonny. (2014). Use of Force. Immersive journalism experience about deaths of a
immigrant Anastacio Hernandez Rojas at the hands of border patrol. Funded by Tribeca
and an Online News Association Google/AP grant.
De la Peña, Nonny. (2016). Across the Line. Immersive journalism experience that put the
audience on scene to face protesters at health clinics. Executive Produced by Planned
Parenthood and created in collaboration with 371 Productions.

290
Dede, C., Salzman, M., & Loftin, B. (1996). ScienceSpace: Virtual realities for learning complex
and abstract scientific concepts. Proceedings of IEEE virtual reality annual international
symposium 1996 (pp. 246-253). New York: IEEE Press.
DeLappe, J. ( 2008). Reenactment: The Salt Satyagraha. Retrieved on September 9, 2008 from
http://saltmarchsecondlife.wordpress.com/page/2/ From his performance on April 6, 2008.
Dibbel, J. (1993, Dec 23). A rape in cyberspace. The Village Voice.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040867
Dourish, Paul. (2001). Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press.
Ehrsson, H. (2007). The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science, 317, 1048
Eitzen, Dirk. (1995). “When Is a Documentary?: Documentary as a Mode of Reception,” Cinema
Journal, 35 no. 1 Autumn: 81--‐102.
Ekstrom, Mat. (2002). “Epistemologies of TV journalism: A theoretical framework,” Journalism
33): 259–282.
Elsaesser, Thomas, and Malte Hagener. (2010). Film theory: an introduction through the senses.
New York: Routledge.
Eveleth, Rose. (2013). Robots: Is the Uncanny Valley Real? BBC Future. BBC, 2 Sept. 2013.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130901-is-the-uncanny-valley-real. Accessed 10
October 2016.
Foucault, Michel. (2012). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan
Sheridan, 2nd ed., Vintage Books.
Frank, M., & Gilovich, T. (1988). The dark side of self and social perception: Black uniforms
and aggression in professional sports. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54,
74-85.
Friedberg, Anne. (2006.) The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft. The MIT Press, 2009.
Fullerton, Tracy. (September 2008). “Documentary Games: Putting the Player in the Path of
History,” in Playing the Past: Nostalgia in Video Games and Electronic Literature, ed.
Zach Whalen and Laurie Taylor. Vanderbilt University Press.
Gee, J. (2005). Pleasure, Learning, Video Games, and Life: the projective stance, E-Learning,
2(3), pp. 211-223 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2005
Gellhorn, Martha. (1988). The view from the ground. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Print.
Heidegger, Martin. (1993). “Being and Time.” Four Phenomenological Philosophers, edited by
Christopher Macann, Routledge, 56 - 109.
Jenkins, Alice. (2007). Space and the ‘March of Mind’: Literature and the Physical Sciences in
Britain 1815 – 1850. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
John Grierson, (1966). “The First Principles of Documentary,” in Grierson on Documentary, ed.
Forsythe Hardy London: Faber & Faber p. 147.
Johnson, R., & Downing, L. (1979). Deindividuation and valence of cues: Effects on prosocial
and antisocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1532-1538.
Kelliher, Mazalek and Davenport, (2003). Documenting digital dialogues: Engaging audience in
the construction of a collective documentary across time and space. Proceedings of
TIDSE ’03 Darmstadt, Germany Springer-Verlag. Sannella, M. J. 1994 Constraint
Satisfaction and Debugging for Interactive User Interfaces. Doctoral Thesis. UMI Order
Number: UMI Order No. GAX95-09398. University of Washington.
Kilteni, Normand, & Slater. (2012). Extending Body Space in Immersive Virtual Reality: A Very
Long Arm Illusion. PLoS ONE 7(7): e40867.

291
Lefebvre, Henri. (1991). The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith,
Wiley-Blackwell.
Lenggenhager, B., Tadi, T., Metzinger, T., & Blanke, O. (2007). Video ergo sum: Manipulating
bodily self-consciousness. Science, 317, 1096-1099.
Macann, C. E. (1993). Four phenomenological philosophers Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre,
Merleau-Ponty. London, Routledge.
Malpas, Jeff. (2012). Heidegger and the Thinking of Place.
https://doi.org/10.7551/MITPRESS/9780262016841.001.0001
Manovich, L. (2001). Macrocinema, Paper published online:
http://www.manovich.net/macrocinema.doc:.
Manovich, L. (2001). The Language of New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge MA
Marchessault, Janine and Susan Lord. (2008). Fluid Screens, Expanded Cinema (Digital
Futures). University of Toronto Press.
Marks, Laura U. (2000). The skin of the film: intercultural cinema, embodiment, and the senses.
Durham: Duke University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, and Claude Lefort. (1968.) The visible and the invisible; followed by
working notes.. Evanston [Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. New York: Humanities Press.
Translated by Donald A. Landes, Routledge, 2012.
Mondloch, Kate. (2010) Screens: Viewing Media Installation Art: 30 (Electronic Mediations).
University of Minnesota Press. Kindle Edition.
Mori, Masahiro, trans by Karl Macdorman, and Norri Kageki (2012) The Uncanny Valley [From
the Field]. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 19.2 98-100.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/203887410/The-Uncanny-Valley-Masahiro-Mori. Accessed
30 October 2016.
Murphy, Kate (2015). Feeling Woozy: It may be Cybersickness. New York Times. November
14, 2015.
Murray, Craig D., and Judith Sixsmith. (1999). The Corporeal Body in Virtual Reality. Ethos
27.3:315-343.
Murray, J. (1997). Hamlet on the Holodeck : The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Cambridge,
Mass.: The MIT Press.
Nowak, K. and Rauh, C. (2005). The influence of the avatar on online perceptions of
anthropomorphism, androgyny, credibility, homophily, and attraction. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(1).
Olesen, Thomas. (2008). “Activist Journalism? The Danish Cheminova debates, 1997 and 2006,”
Journalism Practice, 2 no. 2: 245 – 263, p. 247.
Pollick, Frank E (2010) In Search of the Uncanny Valley. , in Petros Daras and Oscar Mayora
Ibarra (eds) User Centric Media. Berlin: Springer, 69–78.
Retrieved from
http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/2no2/Papers/Ingrid%20Richardson&Carly%20Harper.htm
Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18117-how-your-brain-sees-
virtual-you.html#.Uj9bARZLFAs
Richardson, Ingrid and Carly Harper. (2002). Corporeal Virtuality: The Impossibility of a
Fleshless Ontology.

292
Sanchez-Vives, Maria V. and Mel Slater (2005) Opinion: From Presence to Consciousness
through Virtual Reality. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6.4: 332-39.
http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v6/n4/abs/nrn1651.html. Accessed 16 October 2016.
Sancton, J. (April, 10 2008). Click Here for Torture. Vanity Fair Retrieved on September 9,
2008 from http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/secondlife200805
Schmudt, H. (2007). Games Industry Discovers Gitmo, Hunger and Other Serious Issues Der
Spiegel Science Vol. 317, 1096-1099
Seymour, Michael, Reimer, Kai and Kay, Judy. (2017) Interactive Realistic Digital Avatars –
Revisiting the Uncanny Valley. Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference
on System Sciences; 548-556
Slater M, Spanlang B, Sanchez-Vives MV, Blanke O. (2010). First Person Experience of
Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive
virtual environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364: 1535. 3549-3557 Dec.
Sobchack, Vivian Carol. (1992). The address of the eye: a phenomenology of film experience.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Thorburn, David, Henry Jenkins, and Brad Seawell. (2003). Rethinking media change: the
aesthetics of transition. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet: New York: Simon and
Schuster.
Weil, Peggy and Nonny de la Peña (2008) Avatar Mediated Cinema. In ACM International
Conference Proceeding Series; 352: 209-212
Westerståhl, Jorgen. (1983). “Objective News Reporting: General Premises,” Communication
Research 10 No. 3: 403--‐424.
Wilbert-Lampen, U., D. Leistner, S. Greven, T. Pohl, S. Sper, C. Volker, D. Guthlin, A. Plasse,
A. Knez, H. Kuchenhoff, and G. Steinbeck. (2008). Cardiovascular Events during World
Cup Soccer." New England Journal of Medicine 358.5: 475-83.
Yee, Nick and Jeremy Bailenson, J.N. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed
Self-Representation on Behavior. Human Communication Research, 33, 271-290
Yoshimura, Naoki. (2014). Indiecade Review: Use of Force. Famitsu. Accessed from the
internet. October 14, 2014.
Zimbardo, P. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order vs. deindividuation,
impulse and chaos. In W. J. Arnold & D. Levine (Eds.), Nebraska Symposium on
Motivation (Vol. 17, pp. 237-307). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Zimbardo, P. (1971). The Stanford Prison Experience. Taken from the web on May 5, 2019.
https://web.stanford.edu/dept/spec_coll/uarch/exhibits/spe/Narration.pdf

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Somatic montage: supra-dimensional composition in cinema and the arts

PDF

Penrose Station: an exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist

PDF

Real fake rooms: experiments in narrative design for virtual reality

PDF

Collectivizing justice: transmedia memory practices, participatory witnessing, and feminist space building in Nicaragua

PDF

Infrastructures of the imagination: building new worlds in media, art, & design

PDF

Fall from Grace: an experiment in understanding and challenging player beliefs through games

PDF

Ascension: an analysis of game design for speech recognition system usage and spatialized audio for virtual reality

PDF

Morana: explore healing potential of virtual reality storytelling

PDF

Seymour Deeply: exploring stereoscopic 3D as a storytelling tool in interactive media

PDF

Liquidators: immersion through permanence

PDF

Ascension: a look into context-dependent memory development in virtual worlds

PDF

Psynchrony: finding the way forward

PDF

More lives to live?: archiving and repurposing the daytime soap opera

PDF

Riddles of representation in fantastic media

PDF

Coding.Care: guidebooks for intersectional AI

PDF

The virtual big sister: television and technology in girls' media

PDF

Six walks in digital worlds: walking simulators, neuroaesthetics, video games, and virtual reality

PDF

“Mystical” VR: an experimental VR experience exploring concepts and symbolism of ancient Andean worldview based on the symbol ""La Chakana""

PDF

Channeling Shirley MacLaine: stardom, travel, politics, and beyond

PDF

BeachcomberVR: inspiring exploration: concepts in the production of a virtual reality game

Asset Metadata

Creator de la Peña, Nonny A.M. (author)

Core Title Inventing immersive journalism: embodiment, realism and presence in nonfiction

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Cinematic Arts (Media Arts and Practice)

Publication Date 12/18/2019

Defense Date 05/28/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag augmented reality,behavioral realism,duality of presence,embodied digital rhetoric,embodied edit,immersive journalism,OAI-PMH Harvest,room scale,spatial narrative,virtual reality,volumetric content

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Willis, Holly (committee chair), Debevec, Paul (committee member), Jenkins, Henry (committee member), McPherson, Tara (committee member), Slater, Mel (committee member)

Creator Email nonny@emblematicgroup.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-255674

Unique identifier UC11674697

Identifier etd-delaPeaNon-8094.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-255674 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-delaPeaNon-8094.pdf

Dmrecord 255674

Document Type Dissertation

Rights de la Peña, Nonny A.M.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA