Abstract
This article examines the impact of augmented reality (AR) visualizations on users’ sense of physical presence, knowledge gain, and perceptions of the authenticity of journalistic visuals. In a mixed experimental design, 79 participants were randomly assigned to view three The New York Times articles on a mobile phone featuring one of three viewing modalities: (1) AR visualizations, (2) interactive (non-AR) visualizations, or (3) non-interactive, static visualizations. AR induced a greater sense of physical presence compared to the other modalities. The findings suggest that immersive properties of AR can contribute to journalism’s goal of engaging the audience. However, AR was not a superior medium for informing the participants, and the viewing modality did not have an effect on the perceived authenticity of the visuals. The findings indicate a need for more efficient ways to relay information through journalistic AR visualizations while keeping the user engaged in an immersive experience.
Keywords
Augmented reality, authenticity, immersion, immersive journalism, immersive media, journalistic norms, presence, visual journalism
(…)
| Aitamurto, T., Aymerich-Franch, L., Saldivar, J., Kircos, C., Sadeghi, Y., & Sakshuwong, S. (2020). «Examining augmented reality in journalism: Presence, knowledge gain, and perceived visual authenticity». New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820951925 |
References
| Ahn, SJ, Bostick, J, Ogle, E, et al. (2016) Experiencing nature: embodying animals in immersive virtual environments increases inclusion of nature in self and involvement with nature. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 21(6): 399–419. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Ahn, SJ, Le, AMT, Bailenson, J (2013) The effect of embodied experiences on self-other merging, attitude, and helping behavior. Media Psychology 16(1): 7–38. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Aitamurto, T (2019) Normative paradoxes in 360° journalism: contested accuracy and objectivity. New Media & Society 21(1): 3–19. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI |
|
| Aitamurto, T, Boin, J-B, Chen, K, et al. (2018) The impact of augmented reality on art engagement: liking, impression of learning, and distraction. In: Chen, JYC, Fragomeni, G (eds) Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality: Applications in Health, Cultural Heritage, and Industry (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 153–171. Google Scholar |
|
| Aymerich-Franch, L, Kizilcec, RF, Bailenson, JN (2014) The relationship between virtual self similarity and social anxiety. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8: 1–10. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
|
| Azuma, RT (1997) A survey of augmented reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 6(4): 355–385. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Beasley, TM (2002) Multivariate aligned rank test for interactions in multiple group repeated measures designs. Multivariate Behavioral Research 37(2): 197–226. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Carlson, M (2009) The reality of a fake image: news norms, photojournalistic craft, and Brian Walski’s fabricated photograph. Journalism Practice 3: 125–139. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Chang, K-E, Chang, C-T, Hou, H-T, et al. (2014) Development and behavioral pattern analysis of a mobile guide system with augmented reality for painting appreciation instruction in an art museum. Computers & Education 71: 185–197. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Cook, AV (2018) Digital reality and the revival of journalism. Wired, 2 August. Available at: https://www.wired.com/wiredinsider/2018/08/digital-reality-and-the-revival-of-journalism/ Google Scholar |
|
| De la Peña, N, Weil, P, Llobera, J, et al. (2010) Immersive journalism: immersive virtual reality for the first-person experience of news. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 19: 291–301. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Di Serio, Á, Ibáñez, MB, Kloos, CD (2013) Impact of an augmented reality system on students’ motivation for a visual art course. Computers & Education 68: 586–596. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Garau, M, Friedman, D, Widenfeld, HR, et al. (2008) Temporal and spatial variations in presence: qualitative analysis of interviews from an experiment on breaks in presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 17(3): 293–309. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Gweon, G, Kim, B, Kim, J, et al. (2018) MABLE: mediating young children’s smart media usage with augmented reality. In: Proceedings of the CHI ‘18: 2018 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, Montreal QC, Canada, 19 April 2018, pp. 1–9. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Ibelema, M, Powell, L (2001) Cable television news viewed as most credible. Newspaper Research Journal 22(1): 41–51. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
|
| Kang, S, O’Brien, E, Villarreal, A, et al. (2019) Immersive journalism and telepresence: does virtual reality news use affect news credibility? Digital Journalism 7(2): 294–313. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Kiousis, S (2006) Exploring the impact of modality on perceptions of credibility for online news stories. Journalism Studies 7(2): 348–359. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Kohring, M, Matthes, J (2007) Trust in news media: development and validation of a multidimensional scale. Communication Research 34(2): 231–252. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI |
|
| Lee, KM (2004) Presence, explicated. Communication Theory 14(1): 27–50. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Lombard, M, Ditton, T (1997) At the heart of it all: the concept of presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3(2): JCMC321. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Meneses Fernández, MD, Martín Gutiérrez, J (2016) Printing newspapers and augmented reality: a viable partnership. Arbor 192(777): a292. Google Scholar |
|
| Newman, N (2017) Journalism, Media and Technology Trends and Predictions 2017. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Google Scholar |
|
| Oh, C, Herrera, F, Bailenson, J (2019) The effects of immersion and real-world distractions on virtual social interactions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 22(6): 365–372. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
|
| Papacharissi, Z (2015) Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar |
|
| Pavlik, JV (2019) Journalism in the Age of Virtual Reality: How Experiential Media Are Transforming News. New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar |
|
| Pavlik, JV, Bridges, F (2013) The emergence of augmented reality (AR) as a storytelling medium in journalism. Journalism & Communication Monographs 15(1): 4–59. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
|
| Pejsa, T, Kantor, J, Benko, H, et al. (2016) Room2Room: enabling life-size telepresence in a projected augmented reality environment. In: Proceedings of the 19th ACM conference on computer—supported cooperative work & social computing—CSCW ‘16, San Francisco, CA, 27 February–2 March 2016, pp. 1714–1723. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Ribbens, W, Malliet, S (2010) Perceived digital game realism: a quantitative exploration of its structure. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 19(6): 585–600. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Roberts, G (2018) Augmented reality: how we’ll bring the news into your home. The New York Times, 1 February. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/01/sports/olympics/nyt-ar-augmented-reality-ul.html Google Scholar |
|
| Schudson, M (1978) Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books. Google Scholar |
|
| Shin, D, Biocca, F (2018) Exploring immersive experience in journalism. New Media & Society 20(8): 2800–2823. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI |
|
| Slater, M, Wilbur, S (1997) A framework for immersive virtual environments (FIVE): speculations on the role of presence in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 6(6): 603–616. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Slater, M, Khanna, P, Mortensen, J, et al. (2009) Visual realism enhances realistic response in an immersive virtual environment. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 29(3): 76–84. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
|
| Slater, M, Navarro, X, Valenzuela, J, et al. (2018) Virtually being Lenin enhances presence and engagement in a scene from the Russian Revolution. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 5: 91. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Steensen, S (2011) Online journalism and the promises of new technology: a critical review and look ahead. Journalism Studies 12(3): 311–327. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Steuer, J (1992) Defining virtual reality: dimensions determining telepresence. Journal of Communication 42(4): 73–93. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI |
|
| Strauss, AL, Corbin, JM (1998) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Google Scholar |
|
| Sundar, SS, Kang, J, Oprean, D (2017) Being there in the midst of the story: how immersive journalism affects our perceptions and cognitions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 20(11): 672–682. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
|
| Tang, A, Biocca, F, Lim, L (2004) Comparing differences in presence during social interaction in augmented reality versus virtual reality environments: an exploratory study. In: Proceedings of the seventh annual international workshop “Presence 2004,” Valencia, 1 January. Google Scholar |
|
| Tirohl, B (2000) The photo-journalist and the changing news image. New Media & Society 2(3): 335–352. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
|
| Wechsler, D (1997) Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III). 3rd ed. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. Google Scholar |
|
| Wechsler, D (2001) Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-II). 2nd ed. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. Google Scholar |
|
| Welch, RB, Blackmon, TT, Liu, A, et al. (1996) The effects of pictorial realism, delay of visual feedback, and observer interactivity on the subjective sense of presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 5(3): 263–273. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Williams, AE (2012) Trust or bust?: questioning the relationship between media trust and news attention. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(1): 116–131. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Wobbrock, JO, Findlater, L, Gergle, D, et al. (2011) The aligned rank transform for nonparametric factorial analyses using only ANOVA procedures. In: Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems—CHI ‘11, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 7–12 May 2011, p. 143. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Yoon, SA, Anderson, E, Park, M, et al. (2018) How augmented reality, textual, and collaborative scaffolds work synergistically to improve learning in a science museum. Research in Science & Technological Education 36(3): 261–281. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Yoon, SA, Elinich, K, Wang, J, et al. (2012) Using augmented reality and knowledge-building scaffolds to improve learning in a science museum. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning 7(4): 519–541. Google Scholar | Crossref |
|
| Zelizer, B (2010) About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar |
|
| Zelizer, B (2019) Why journalism is about more than digital technology. Digital Journalism 7(3): 343–350. Google Scholar | Crossref |