There is a new possible radical shift in traditional journalism. A leading media company is venturing into 3D technology for reporting.
The Garnett Company has released a feature on Dammann Farm with a presentation made especially for the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift is the leader in virtual reality technology and has recently been bought by Facebook for $2 billion in cash and stock. Through its digital division, Des Moines Register, the company has completed the virtual reality project called Harvest of Change. It uses today’s technology to explore an old-word place, a virtual tour of an Iowa farm. Oculus Rift has been in a hyper productive state distributing developer kits for the future platform of gaming.
Now, the company wants to use the technology for news journalism targeting people who fall in the 12-29 year old age group. According to Gannet Digital vice president Mitch Gelman, this demographic is “essentially not picking up a newspaper from their front porch or sitting down in front of Brian Williams.”
Once the technology is in place and in the hands of the masses, VR will revolutionize journalism and many other industries as it has with gaming said Greenbaum.
Using virtual reality for journalism is going to be an exciting prospect due to the fact that the audience will be able to be immersed in the news, whatever it may be, instead of just viewing on a television screen.