The audience is all in (or not) : perceptions of the affordances of journalistic 360° video

Abstract

This study shows how the affordances of journalistic 360° video shape and interact with audience perceptions. 360° video is a form of immersive journalism that allows news to be experienced from a first-person perspective while surrounded by a digital space, with the goal of achieving immersion. It is asked how low-level affordances (i.e., storytelling elements of immersive journalism) are perceived and connected to imagined affordances of 360° video, as well as high-level affordances (i.e., communicative outcomes). In-depth interviews were conducted with 37 German news consumers between the ages of 23 and 80, who were shown two videos on different topics and with two headsets of different sophistication. The study found that the low-level affordances of navigating the self in the story (use of a virtual body, direct address) were often perceived as confusing. Moreover, the use of the spatial narrative (use of the 360° space, unusual perspectives) clashed with interviewees' ideas of how journalism should be p