Journalism Industry Benefits from New Augmented Reality Technology

Today's online news outlets face stiff competition. Even well known media giants like the New York Times have to fight for readers against each major city's newspapers, independent blogs and news aggregators. Being online brings so much more competition, but it also has advantages, such as going beyond mere photographs.

One way major news outlets can stand out from the competition is to use technology to give readers a better understanding of the news with 3D content. The Weather Channel's 3D videos explaining storm surges and The New York Times 3D model which explained why Notre-Dame's fire was especially devastating offers easy to digest, immersive information. New smartphones will make 3D images and videos available to smaller news outlets with limited budgets. Open source 3D creation suites, such as Blender, make it easier for smaller newsrooms to engage viewers.

Other technologies news outlets are embracing include augmented or virtual reality and 360° videos. Journalists can help viewers set into dangerous or exotic world they would never visit in real life. Objective journalism lets viewers see what is really happening with no edits or scene cropping.

Virtual reality is one of the hottest trends in journalism, especially since new technologies are constantly introduced. Already major news outlets, such as Time and The New York Times have adopted VR and are taking advantage of the endless opportunities. Augmented reality isn't as popular as AR even though viewers only need a smartphone to view AR content. One early AR adopter is The Washington Post, which used AR to depict what happened to a man who died while in Baltimore Police custody.

Smart media outlets are investing in technology and human capital who is tech-savvy. Nevertheless, journalists still have to tell a story as 3D images and AR are add-ons to stories, not the stories themselves. For more information click here https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/17/world/europe/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-spread.html.