Immersive Journalism after the VR Hype from Media Professionals' Perspective

The past decade saw a wave of hype over immersive media technology such as virtual reality (VR). The hype has brought immersive journalism (IJ) much attention and investment, and many news media started piloting their IJ products during this period. However, the VR hype and the enthusiasm in IJ seems to have faded, as professionals and researchers see a decrease in IJ production in recent years. What happens to IJ after the VR hype? What can we learn from the professionals’ experience with IJ in the last decade? This study held in-depth interviews with 13 media professionals from various roles in media to inductively analyse their experience working with IJ. We found the rapidly diminishing funding from the information technology sector to be the direct cause of the decrease in IJ production, and explored the internal challenges facing IJ that led to this phenomenon. Although the over-hyped industry brought IJ doubts and disillusionment, media innovators kept on developing IJ and had an outlook for its future. This paper further discussed how news professionals sought IJ as a form of journalism innovation in the changing and challenging media environment.