THEORETICAL MODEL FOR VIRTUAL REALITY JOURNALISM RESEARCH (MVRJR): the user's journey through an immersive news experience

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) journalism promises to impact the cognitive, affective and behavioral faculties of audiences. However, research on VR journalism does not have its own theoretical frameworks. Therefore, this article proposes a model, the MIPRV, which integrates the Uses and Gratifications Theory (U&G), Affordances, and the Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECT) to analyze the three stages of the 'journey' (separation, immersion and return) that a user experiences when exposed to a VR news story. The model achieves, in addition to rereading in light of the ethical and normative principles of journalism several of the concepts associated with VR (e.g., presence, embodiment, empathy, etc.), formulating affordances (e.g., storyliving) and gratifications/effects unique to non-fiction stories (e.g., news values and framing, authenticity of the news events and content credibility, knowledge and understanding of the event).