Slides for a discussion of ethics and other issues in using virtual reality in journalism, advertising, public relations and political communication.

1. Virtual Reality Issues
in Communication
Steve Buttry
Manship School of Mass Communication
November 17, 2015

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

3. 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

6. “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

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

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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?

11. 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”

13. “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

14. Ethical issues
Public 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.”

15. Ethical issues
More 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.”

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

21. VR ethical issues
Accuracy: 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?

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

24. VR ethical issues
Michael 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.”

25. 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

26. 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

27. VR ethical issues
Graphic 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?

28. 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

29. 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

30. VR ethical issues
Privacy: 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?

31. VR ethical issues
Intensity: 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?

32. VR ethical issues
Transparency: 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.”

33. 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

34. 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

35. Ethics and VR
Tom 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.”

37. “We think VR has a promising future,
just like photography did 119 years
ago.”
-- Jake Silverstein, New York Times
Magazine editor

39. 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