The MIT Press publishes a journal called “Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments”. Its Volume 19, Issue 4 of August 2010 featured a pioneering, scientific article by Nonny de la Peña and her 7 co-authors entitled “Immersive Journalism: Immersive Virtual Reality for the First-Person Experience of News”. Nicknamed “The Godmother of Virtual Reality” by Engadget, Forbes, and The Guardian, she is recognized as having created the genre of immersive journalism. The paper’s abstract beautifully exposes its potential, e.g. by saying “The sense of presence… affords the participants access to the sights and sounds, and possibly feelings and emotions, that accompany the news.”

More recently, in 2017, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, UK, published a report entitled “VR for News: The New Reality?”, written by Zillah Watson, who worked at BBC Research and Development, where she led the editorial development of VR experimentation for several years. This comprehensive report is undoubtedly the most complete account of the state of immersive journalism at the time of this writing.

On Wed 13 Dec pm, Stereopsia’s Professional Conference (PCON) will lead you through the world of immersive journalism of today through short stand-alone presentations followed by a discussion panel involving 6 experts: Dominik Baumann (BLICK, Ringier AG, Switzerland), Martin Heller (WELT, Germany), Martin Jönsson (Dagens Nyheter, Sweden), Kay Meseberg (ARTE, France), Sebastian Pfotenhauer (BLICK, Ringier AG, Switzerland), Thomas Seymat (Euronews, France). As for all other PCON speakers, you’ll find their photos and biographies on the PCON webpage.

During our combing of the world to build this session, we were amazed by the enthusiasm of all those we contacted for our initiative to cover “immersive journalism” in the new “World Immersion Forum” taking place in Brussels, which has one of the largest press corps in the world.