“Indian Journalism in the Era of Virtual Reality“
by Musharraf Ali
I am reality; I can be touched, felt, and experienced. The image of me reflected in the mirror also cannot be touched or held. This is virtual reality. When I move away from the mirror, my existence remains, but the existence of my image vanishes. Similarly, a portrait, whether hand-drawn or captured by a photographer, can be touched or held, but it does not convey the liveliness that it possesses. Moreover, in the portrait taken from the front, one cannot see how I appear from the sides or from behind. Moving further, I enter the world of video, where I appear to be alive and moving; I can be seen walking and moving, but I cannot be touched or held. Moving further, I enter the realm of technology where virtual reality comes into play. In this domain, videos captured with 360-degree cameras, viewed through devices like Google Cardboard or Oculus Go, give the sensation as if one is part of the event or present in the scene. Beyond this, there is another technology called augmented reality. This technology enhances virtual reality even further, providing an improved and more immersive experience.
This technology is being used in various fields such as video games, education, military training, engineering, shopping, medicine, journalism, and many others. For instance, in military training, everything happening around in a war scenario can be displayed through this technology. Similarly, in journalism, it makes the audience feel as though they are present on the battlefield. An example is the film “House to House: A Battle of Mosul” created by the Associated Press using AR-VR technology, where viewers feel as if they are personally involved in the battle against ISIS in the city of Mosul, Iraq. They experience the challenges of urban warfare first hand.
Similarly, the film “6 Lives on Mars” produced by The New York Times depicts scientists living on a Hawaiian island in such a way that viewers experience life on Mars. Previously, we used to view stories in two dimensions, but VR-AR technology in journalism has made it possible to see in three dimensions. We immerse ourselves in the story and experience it first-hand. When AR and VR are combined with 360-degree cameras, the resulting video is called Mixed Reality (MR).
Videos that utilize all these methods are referred to as immersive media technology. “Immersive” means to be deeply involved. Another name for it is Extended Reality (XR). Amit Chatterjee uses immersive media technology through his company, Shadow Factory, in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Toronto. This technology allows customers to immerse themselves in the production process of a product. For instance, Shadow Factory created a program called “Master of Times” for a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, where customers experience the journey to the factory and the process of making the watch in a vivid, interactive way. ‘Matter-port’ is an immersive technology company that manufactures the MC 250 high-resolution 3D scanning camera. The Associated Press was the first to use this camera to create the first virtual reality story, “The Suit Life.” This story provides a realistic experience of staying in hotel rooms and experiencing life there. For AP journalists, this was the first experience with visual storytelling technology, allowing consumers to virtually tour airplanes, sea voyages, and first-class hotel rooms. Not only the Associated Press but also other media companies are now establishing their studios to work on ‘immersive projects’ in journalism. A new technology in this field, ‘volumetric capture,’ is under development, which claims to offer not just virtual tours of spaces but also the ability to touch 3D objects. In 2014, OMD conducted a study that found an average person changes their attention to smartphones, laptops, and tablets 21 times per hour. This poses a challenge for product manufacturers in keeping a person’s attention focused on their product. Emblematic Group, a VR studio, created a film titled “Out of Exile: Daniel’s Story” using volumetric scanning technology. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. Its founder, Nonny de la Peña, states that we experience the world with our entire bodies, so why not experience a story with our entire bodies as well? News agencies are now sending their journalists and photojournalists to the scene with 360-degree cameras. This new wave of technology in journalism is collectively known as ‘immersive media,’ which includes 360-degree video cameras, AR, and volumetric capture, incorporating CGI and 3D scanning. This technology allows journalists to place audiences within the event, making it possible without physical or financial barriers. Participants explore new truths while traveling in new environments.
The above description illustrates the technological advancements in the field of journalism. Technology has stirred up the news industry, but immersive media requires expensive equipment, artificial intelligence, and costly studios, which are beyond the reach of smaller media groups or individual journalists. Dynamic storytelling goes beyond traditional reporting. In this domain, news agencies need the assistance of graphic artists, game developers, and motion designers. VR reporters must be skilled in 3D animation, motion graphics, video editing, and technical rendering.
With the rapid advancement of immersive technology, it seems that information created with AR and MR technologies will soon reach a large audience and become available on our smartphones. For this, Apple has developed Arcit, Google has developed Tango, and Facebook has created an AR platform. These platforms are new tools that will make virtual reality technology more accessible to the general public and make them accustomed to the information delivered through these mediums. Therefore, these tools pose a challenge to labor-intensive journalism. Just as television created a crisis for newspapers, immersive media technology has once again placed newspapers in a precarious position.
Newspapers are struggling on a large scale. Just as the advent of television in the 1950s reduced the number of newspaper publications, the arrival of the internet in the 1990s has similarly put newspapers in crisis. Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch once referred to the steady income from newspapers as the “River of Gold,” but he now says that the river is drying up. Warren Buffett, owner of Buffalo News, warns that if the development of satellite and internet continues at its current pace, newspapers may not be able to sustain their existence. According to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the second wave of news media, which followed television and the internet, has had a massive impact on the newspaper industry. The advent of mobile phones, social media, and visual media has put journalism through a crisis, as mobile phones are becoming the primary source of news in developed countries. In the United States, during major events, nearly half of the news that flow from BBC and The New York Times shifted to mobile phones and tablets. Additionally, new players in the information sector, such as Apple, Disney, Hulu, and others, have entered the market.
Nowadays, virtual reality (VR) is discussed primarily in the context of technology, but virtual reality is not a new concept in human history. The clash between reality and illusion has been occurring since ancient times. Different eras have had various means of presenting this conflict. In class-based societies, the oppressor class has presented illusions as reality, while the supporters of the oppressed class have presented reality as it is. In Feudal societies, religion creates a virtual world that includes gods, heaven, hell, deities, avatars, and prophets, which are presented as reality. Religious leaders, imams, and priests propagate these narratives or grand narratives from their places of worship. The influence of this virtual reality is such that a large portion of the world’s population considers it real, adhering to traditions and rituals and remaining under the influence of religious authorities. In today’s era, capitalism presents an exploitative capitalist system as development and solutions to problems through modern communication media. It portrays the free market-based political system as the best, while depicting socialist systems as inhumane and undemocratic. This narrative is ingrained in the consciousness of even those who are opposed to the capitalist system. Due to the abundance of resources and wealth available to capitalism for presenting illusions as reality, it finds it relatively easy to do so. In contrast, thinkers, writers, and journalists of the oppressed classes lack resources to present reality as it is, making it difficult to free the public, who have been misled into believing falsehoods, from the grasp of exploiters. Whenever capitalism faces a crisis in any country, it diverts the attention of the troubled populace towards immigrants. This is what is happening around the world today. Whether in Europe, America, or Asia, fascist parties and organizations are on the rise. In America, Donald Trump, and as reported, in India, and some countries are explaining their troubled populations by justifying that their problems are caused by outsiders or immigrants. They suggest that identifying and removing these outsiders will provide relief. They are using modern communication media to embed this idea in the minds of their people. This technology is also being used to win elections.
The biggest challenge for people-oriented journalists is how to use this expensive virtual reality technology to tell the truth to the public. While capitalism requires virtual reality technology to spread lies and hatred, those who believe in the high values of journalism need the same technology to reveal the truth. For example, one of the many instances of how capitalism uses virtual reality to serve imperialistic interests is the First Gulf War. During this time, American President George H. W. Bush presented a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl as a witness before the Senate to seek approval for an attack on Iraq. The girl, who claimed to be a nurse in a Kuwaiti hospital, testified tearfully that Saddam Hussein’s troops had entered the hospital and removed new borns from incubators, leaving them to die outside.
This is called a “Nayirah testimony” or “witness statement.” The nurse girl was named Nayirah al-Sabah. It was later revealed that no such incident had occurred in any Kuwaiti hospital, and the girl was not a nurse but rather the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S., Saud al-Sabah. Following this testimony, the Senate granted permission to the Pentagon to attack, and George H. W. Bush ordered the bombing of retreating Iraqi forces, resulting in the deaths of 200,000 Iraqi soldiers. This false testimony was organized by the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, working for the Kuwaiti government under the “Citizens for a Free Kuwait” campaign. Similarly, you will see that false information about North Korea is continually spread by the U.S.
False news about China’s Uyghur Muslims is regularly sent to newspapers around the world against the Chinese government. Hollywood continuously produces war films portraying American soldiers as saviors of humanity, while the reality is that these American soldiers drop bombs on hospitals and schools as if playing a video game, yet their image in films is of protectors of humanity. Children’s cartoon films are also made with political motives, embedding falsehoods as truths in people’s consciousness. In 2016, false videos that gave a false sense of reality were widely created during Donald Trump’s election campaign, and the public believed these false videos to be true, leading to Trump’s election victory. It was later discovered that Donald Trump had hired a British digital marketing company called Cambridge Analytica to steal personal information from Americans on Facebook and provide that data to his campaign managers, who sent false information directly to American voters and misled them about Hillary Clinton. The same company did similar work in India
Programs that incite hatred towards a particular community have surged on social media and what is being called “media lapdogs,” and the public voted for the same party in all subsequent elections that had previously subjected the entire country to poverty and misery. The party that had even imposed undue taxes on toilets and coffins was unnoticed by the public, who fell victim to confusion. Hate-spreading false videos are now considered among the most dangerous worldwide. The term “fake news” became popular from Donald Trump’s election campaign, and his former campaign manager and current advisor Kellyanne Conway rebranded it as “alternative facts.” Social media platforms play a major role in spreading fake news. Nowadays, journalism often presents both sides of an issue, but one side is frequently false. The media, often referred to as “lapdog media,” only shows one side, which is full of hatred, and portrays a fabricated history to foster that hatred. For example, some T V channels regularly broadcast programs based on pseudo-historians’ fabricated history, published by publishers like Suruchi Prakashan. This history is written like a novel, based on imagination. Similarly, fake videos are being produced in bulk and shared by people without verifying their sources. Such shared videos are known as “dark social.” On Facebook, 23% of shared content or even more is dark social. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, people in the U.S. view fake news as a bigger problem than racism, sexual crime, and terrorism. The report indicates that half of the Americans involved in the study consider fake news to be a major issue.
China has declared fake news created using artificial intelligence and bots as a crime. According to new regulations, any audio or video created with AI or VR technology must include a warning. These rules will come into effect from January 1, 2020. Fake news is defined as any information that is presented in a misleading or deliberately distorted manner. This information has been issued by China’s Cyber Space Authority.
In India, public-interest journalism faces numerous challenges. One major challenge is Reliance reportedly acquired substantial stakes in most news channels, effectively turning them into corporate media. As such rumors have been flying that the public faces difficulty in seeing see the truth of any news. For instance, Mukesh Ambani reportedly concealed information from the Income Tax Department about significant black money held by his family abroad. Despite receiving a notice from the Income Tax Department in March 2019, this news is absent from major news channels, although it is available on social media. Furthermore, many journalists have been either removed from newspapers and news channels or forced to resign. They now run their YouTube channels outside mainstream media. It is highly encouraging that these public-interest journalists, most of whom have moved to social media, have preserved the highest values of journalism and continue to bravely fight against anti-public forces.
My main objective of writing all this is only to induce a healthy and vibrant journalism wherein truth is not camouflaged and one has the guts to call a spade a spade sans mincing words. It is also pertinent to mention that I’ve no malice against any political party, whatsoever.
Musharraf Ali primarily contributes article’s on several topics of National and International Interests in Hindi and English to various reputed journals. His articles have appeared in many newspapers, journal’s, magazines and anthologies. He has authored many books including Nuntam Sarkar (minimum government), Smart City, Rahat ya Afat, Chunav jeetne ka naya Hathiar (Digital political marketing). He is an editor with some literary Magzines and ‘Udbhadana’, a Hindi Literary Magazine.
