Evolution of immersive journalism research

Abstract

This chapter presents a scientometric analysis on immersive journalism research over the past several decades from its origin to the current advancement. Based on a bibliometric data assessment using VOSviewer, this chapter (a) identifies the main concepts and foci of research on immersive journalism, (b) visualises the conceptual and thematic structure of research on immersive journalism, (c) presents key components that were revealed in immersive journalism research and (d) suggests potential agendas for future immersive journalism research. Data were collected from Web of Science throughout the month of September 2021, totalling 223 research articles. Results showed that the ‘label view’ for keywords was clustered into six groups: Virtual reality, immersive journalism, journalism, media, communication and gamification. Major keywords were journalism, virtual reality, credibility, engagement, social media, emotion, experience and empathy. These findings lead the author to suggest that future immersive journalism research may focus on technology adoption, news games, experiential documentaries, data visualisation and civic engagement.