Immersive journalism gives the viewer much freedom in the matter of focusing attention on feeling a part of what is happening and studying the surrounding environment as if you were there. The task of the news release is to briefly and comprehensively talk about the most important events in the world. In a virtual environment, there is a risk that the news will either not be accepted by the viewer, or will be interpreted by him in the wrong way. So, the news of the future still will need to be followed by a commentary of professionals or story told by a news broadcaster. What else do we expect from the upcoming methods of immersive journalism?

• What do we have today?

VR is more about feelings and sensations, not about information and knowledge. That is why immersive journalism cannot yet boast of ambitious plans to supplant the traditional format of presentation of material. Today it is represented mainly by specific projects of a certain genre. These are, as a rule, stories about travels or festivals and concerts, documentaries about social problems. A vivid example is the panoramic video «Stories of Lonely Retirees», filmed in 2018 by Russia Today and the «Old Age in Joy» Foundation.

There are several tools for creating an immersive story: spherical cameras with a 360-degree viewing angle, VR glasses for a smartphone (e.g. Google Cardboard) or a professional VR headset (e.g. Valve Index or Oculus Rift). The 360-degree video format has been used successfully by many large Western publications with large budgets like The New York Times, The Huffington Post, TIME, CNN, and BBC. Unfortunately, small news publications cannot afford to experiment with VR. But even the abovementioned media empires do this with great caution: the fact is that tremendous work is required to expand the technical capabilities of the media in the field of VR and that people are not yet ready to move on to a new form of information consumption. You will agree, not every one of us will run to buy VR glasses after reading this material.

• The revolution is inevitable

But when the time comes X and the “fourth industrial revolution” ceases to be just the headline of Schwab’s work, how then will our practices of information consumption change? No newspapers and televisions — instead, each of us will have virtual reality glasses and, possibly, a separate room in the apartment, equipped with huge screens for the 360 effect. And web pages will open in windows in the AR format - just like in the acclaimed American action movies with their incredible special effects.

The technology of virtual and augmented reality will be actively used in the field of media, but this will not happen in one moment. For journalism, the determining factor is the most expeditious receipt of information. The volume of new data is constantly growing, and the screen of a laptop or phone is too small to simultaneously fit the pages of Internet resources, video hosting, and social networks. AR will help to unite them, will make information more visual and receive it in a larger volume. More formats of immersive journalism will emerge, where the viewer himself will act as a correspondent.