ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a closer look at how to understand the impact of engaging the user in a full body experience of the news through a discussion of one of the main claims stemming from immersive journalism producers in years, namely that this type of journalism can create more empathy. In essence, a virtual reality headset is an empathy machine”. Archer and Finger have researched the topic of empathy responses to immersive journalism. These researchers reported in a study conducted at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism that users of 360-degree immersive journalism showed more empathetic responses to the news than they did with static photo/text treatments. Schudson discusses various hypotheses of how objectivity norm emerged in US journalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The anecdotal evidence provides some insight into the power of emotional engagement through immersive journalism. However, immersive journalism needs more robust studies of how immersive media elicit emotions such as empathy.
