360° Journalism as a Gateway to Information Seeking: The Role of Enjoyment and Spatial Presence

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of news modality (print news vs. 360° journalism) on psychological mechanisms of information seeking intention, as well as individual differences that moderate the observed outcomes. The results of a two condition between-subjects experiment (N = 100) conducted on a community sample showed that news modality affected information seeking intentions, enjoyment of news story, and the feelings of spatial presence, but did not affect actual information seeking behavior and information recall. Exposure to 360° journalism led to the increase in spatial presence, which led to a linear increase in enjoyment, ultimately resulting in greater intentions to seek further information. Participants with a higher need for cognitive closure enjoyed consuming news more when the story was presented as 360° journalism than those with a lower need for cognitive closure. Results contribute to expanding the theories of information seeking and the role of affective responses and spatial presence on news consumption in journalism and communication scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• 360° journalism
• immersive journalism
• information seeking
• enjoyment
• spatial presence
• news modality
• virtual reality

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We do not postulate that immersive journalism cannot present hard news topics. Our assumption is that the “softness” is in the modality of 360 news presentation as experienced by its audiences, rather than in the topic of coverage. This is similar to some late night comedy programs that use humoristic and entertaining format to analyze what we typically refer to as hard news topics (e.g., politics and economy). Such programs have been successful in making political information accessible to the audiences, particularly those less politically sophisticated (e.g., Baum 2003; Xenos and Becker 2009). We postulate that the same mechanism might apply to 360 journalism.

2 For all ANCOVA analyses, the same analyses were conducted without the covariates included. The direction and significance of the findings remained unchanged.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) [grant number: Emerging Scholar Grant]; University of Georgia, USA, Department of Journalism, Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism [grant number: seed grant for research in journalism]; Kappa Tau Alpha (KTA), National Honor Society in Journalism and Mass Communication [grant number: Chapter Adviser Research Grant].