Five Takeaways From the Tow Center’s New Virtual Reality Report

The movement first began to take hold last year, when Gannett developed Harvest of Change, an interactive portrait of an Iowa farm that complemented a series of articles published in the Des Moines Register. When viewed on a virtual reality (VR) device, the video appears to surround the viewer, immersing him or her in the story.   Since then, outlets like The New York Times, Al Jazeera, ABC News and more have stepped into the world of virtual reality journalism. At the most recent Online News Association conference in Los Angeles, PBS Frontline debuted a virtual reality experience documenting the Ebola crisis. The film, “Ebola Outbreak: A Virtual Journey,” was created in partnership with a content studio called Secret Location and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.