Journalism: How One University Used Virtual Worlds to Tell True Stories

This paper developed from a grant-funded, university-based project that emulated, at least in part, the work of Nonny de la Peña. The research team uses her definition of immersive journalism as a touchstone: [The] production of news in a form in which people can gain first-person experiences of the events or situations described in news stories (de la Peña, et al., 2010, p. 291). Our research uses a combination of ethnographic and survey research methods. It is written from the perspectives of the project leaders: a journalism professor who was the Principal Investigator, a virtual world development expert who oversaw the creation of the virtual world and machinimas, one of the 11 student interns, an app developer and an online journalism researcher. The professor, the virtual world expert, and the intern have borrowed from the autoethnography qualitative research toolkit in writing their individual sections. The approach acknowledges and accommodates subjectivity, emotionality, and the researcher\u27s influence on research.....(Ellis, 2011, Section 1, para 3). The paper aims to inform journalism, communication and media studies programs in deciding if they should be offering immersive journalism courses or developing immersive journalism curriculum and virtual reality labs or centers