Virtual Reality Issues in Communication

Steve ButtryManship School of Mass Communication

November 17, 2015

Early VR• Video games• Real estate advertising• Nature and travel photography• Event photography• No special viewer• User navigates by controlling screen

Recent VR developments• Nonny de la Peña, first VR story, Hunger

in Los Angeles, 2012• Intern on Hunger, Palmer Luckey,

developed Oculus Rift for $2.5 M, 2012• Facebook buys Oculus for $2B, 2014• Google develops Cardboard viewer, 2014• Samsung develops Gear VR

“Virtual reality affords us the opportunity to see the world through a fresh pair of eyes. You are seeing, hearing, and sensationally stepping inside a moment, a place, a community other than your own. It breaks down barriers like nothing else.”

-- Molly Swenson, RYOT

VR issues• Cost (for user devices & production)• Experience vs. story• Crew in the shots• Intensity, emotion• Motion sickness• Revenue

VR in advertising• Used in real estate, travel for years• Product placement in entertainment VR

(already in video games)• Opportunity to sponsor VR journalism?• Product showrooms?• What else?

VR in public relations• Campus tour of LSU (or other client

destination)• VR version of press releases (if devices

become common)?• VR for clients• What else?

VR in political communication• Accompany candidate on campaign stop?

(Can you edit out hecklers, protesters?)• Oct. 14 Democratic debate streamed in

VR• Who’s the audience? (Will casual voter

watch political VR?)• Will it work in negative ads?

VR journalism• Summer 2014, Des Moines Register “Harvest

of Change”• January 2015, Gannett world championship

skiing• June 2015, BBC shows migrant camp in

northern France• September 2015, Frontline “Project Ebola”• November 2015, NY Times “The Displaced”

“The Displaced”NYT VR story of three children displaced by war (from Ukraine, South Sudan, Syria):• Premiered November 2015• 1 M Google Cardboard viewers mailed to

home-delivery subscribers• More downloads of app in first 3 days

than any other NYT app• Sponsored by GE & Mini

Ethical issuesPublic Editor Margaret Sullivan: Robert Kaiser, former Washington Post managing editor, complained that NY Times seems to be touting a process “that will often be based on tricks and deceptions by photographers/cameramen.”

Ethical issuesMore from Kaiser: “V.R. usually involves more coordination between filmmaker and subject than in traditional video journalism. … A subject may be asked to repeat an action, or wait until the filmmaker is out of sight to complete a task.”

Ethical issuesSullivan summarizes: “This, Mr. Kaiser said, is tantamount to faking a scene — and that’s not sound journalism.”

VR ethical issuesAccuracy: Photos are stitched together into something that’s almost real; is “almost” your standard of accuracy anywhere else? What should you disclose about VR process if it doesn’t meet your usual standard of accuracy?

Michael Oreskes, NPR: “Our stories can't be virtually true. They must be fully real.”

VR ethical issues

VR ethical issuesMichael Oreskes, NPR: “The computer can generate the impression of being at a crime scene by blending still photos of the scene and video of the area shot later. This will seem very real. But it might not pass the high standards set by most photojournalists. Audiences for journalism shouldn't be left to wonder if a computer reconciliation changed anything that a photo editor would not have.”

RTDNA Code of Ethics: “Staging, dramatization and other alterations – even when labeled as such – can confuse or fool viewers, listeners and readers. These tactics are justified only when stories of great significance cannot be adequately told without distortion, and when any creative liberties taken are clearly explained.”

VR ethical issues

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: “Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information. Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.”

VR ethical issues

VR ethical issuesGraphic content: From State of Virtual Reality in Journalism: “What happens if you can’t exclude potentially graphic aspects of a scene?” Possible solutions: Warning? Blurring? Acknowledgment of editing? What else?

De la Peña on “Hunger in LA”: “For our domestic violence piece, the material was carefully chosen. That was a very particular story of two sisters trying to rescue a third sister from a fatal attack by an ex boyfriend. The two sisters both called 911, so we had two audio tracks to recreate the scene. But I didn’t put you on the scene when she was shot and killed. I’m trying to convey stories that have incredible importance, but it doesn’t need the actual violence to convey what is going on.”

VR ethical issues

From State of Virtual Reality: “What happens when a war veteran suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome experiences a 360-degree news video of a car bomb exploding in Aleppo?”

VR ethical issues

VR ethical issuesPrivacy: From State of Virtual Reality: “How do you protect privacy or get consent in a situation where you can’t isolate coverage?” Solutions: Distance? Disclosure? Selection of scenes & shots? Work harder to get consent before shooting? What else?

VR ethical issuesIntensity: From State of Virtual Reality: “Can immersion be too realistic and create frightening or uncomfortable experiences?”Is this an ethical issue or a user-experience issue? Or both? What are ethical concerns? Is disclosure enough?

VR ethical issuesTransparency: From State of Virtual Reality: “The crew becomes much more visible in the footage (you can’t hide behind a camera). This could potentially lead to a greater journalistic transparency.”

Robert Siegel, NPR: “The shadow of a recording engineer, running, is the only hint of a crew at work. Why aspire to invisibility? And, of course, there is the ponderous music to remind us that this is a very distressing story, as if the facts of it didn't do that already.”

Ethics and VR

Michael Oreskes, NPR: “We don't take advantage of tools novelists or movie makers are free to use. They are free to walk right up to the line of truth in telling fictional stories. But we must steer as far as we can from the line of fiction if we want to remain credible to viewers and listeners who believe our stories are true.”

Ethics and VR

Ethics and VRTom Kent of Associated Press (who led Online News Association Build Your Own Ethics Code project): “Common understandings of what techniques are ethically acceptable and what needs to be disclosed to viewers can go a long way toward guarding the future of V.R. as a legitimate journalistic tool.”

“We think VR has a promising future, just like photography did 119 years ago.”

-- Jake Silverstein, New York Times Magazine editor

Michael Oreskes, NPR: “It's not about technology. It's about credibility and making sure our journalism into the future is as credible and trusted as it has been in the past.”

Ethics and VR