A Study on the Relationship between Slow Journalism and Virtual Reality: The New York Times and The Guardian Samples

Abstract

The present study has highlighted the relationship between virtual reality and slow journalism in news presentation and has sought an answer to the question whether this relationship would create a journalism model that prioritizes sensation and empathy required by the society. To this end, a content analysis was conducted in the context of slow journalism on a total of 316 news stories on the YouTube channels of The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers that were prepared with virtual reality applications. The findings of the analysis have revealed that the news stories (VR news) prepared using the virtual reality technology hold the potential to enable the users to sense the events more deeply. It has also been found that VR news stories are mainly selected from timeless topics that are among the most important elements of slow journalism and prepared and presented with a narrative language. It is believed that when virtual reality experiences and slow journalism contents are brought together, it is possible to produce a sensitive journalism practice that has a potential to prioritize sensation, feeling and empathy and destroy prejudices formed over stereotypes. Through such news, the audience will be able to feel, sense and finally empathize with the event enjoying the technical features of virtual reality applications that enable storytelling. Drawing on the fact that media is an important means of cultural transmission and adopting the principles of slow journalism, it is thought that news content prepared with the virtual reality technology has a transformative effect on society.