Nonny de la Pena, has been the pioneer of immersive journalism, an alternative form of reporting that allows participants to deeply engage in a news story by being part of it through a virtual world. Nonny de la Pena has combined the conventions of news gaming and documentaries to create a virtual world in which participants are able to truly engage and be emotionally connected to the news story.Immersive journalism allows participants to truly hear, see, and feel the news event. Immersive journalism sounds like a promising tool for journalism and perhaps could be the very future of journalism. It is a powerful tool that really engages it's audience through a compelling environment and can be use to help promote social change or raise awareness on certain controversial issues.So far Nonny de la Pena has used immersive journalism to advocate for human right issues. A genre that doesn't get covered enough due to the difficulty of communicating and engaging the reader in a genuine manner that truly moves the reader.
Journalist seek to convey messages that impact their readers and influence them to be active citizens. Immersive journalism offers a world in which that can be done by triggering emotions and allowing the participants to learn more about the content and detail of the story. People come to understand and care about certain issue when they are directly connected or emotionally affected to an issue. Therefore, immersive journalism offers great opportunities for journalist who seek to provoke change within their readers and whom are working to make visible certain issues, communities and people that are often rendered invisible by mainstream media.
Nonny de la Pena's work is a powerful example that shows how she is combining technology and journalism in innovative ways to promote social change. Her work provides a form of representation for those who have been politically, socially, or economically excluded. Her work does not only provide a vivid reality of certain issues but it also allows the participant to have agency in the context he or she is put in by allowing the reader to move around and interact with other avatars.This form of interaction is symbolic of the agency people have and the importance of understanding certain issues in which citizens can help change.
This is an interesting review of Nonny de la Pena's work. It is interesting that you point out that her aim is not to sensationalize with hyper-real titillating interactivity but to represent those who might be excluded "politically, socially, or economically" otherwise. The questions that you raise about agency and passive consumption of the news are certainly provocative.
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