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Five Ethical Challenges of Immersive Journalism: A Proposal of Good Practices’ Indicators

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Information Technology and Systems (ICITS 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 918))

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Abstract

Immersive Journalism brings new ethical challenges because some practices and procedures go against conventional journalistic standards. Therefore, the aim of this study was precisely to question decisions and choices taken by professional journalists when they produce and edit immersive content like 360º video reports or virtual reality reconstructions of news. As a result, five main ethical challenges of Immersive Journalism have been identified: image integrity; reconstruction of news; sources and staging; role of the journalist and/or recording team; and sensitive content. Each of these is accompanied by a proposal of good practices to deal with these challenges and to promote reflection among professionals.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been developed within the project Uses and informative preferences in the new media map in Spain: journalism models for mobile devices (Reference: CS02015-64662-C4-4-R) funded by Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Government of Spain) and co-funded by the ERDF structura1 fund. The results of this work correspond also to the project Indicators related to broadcasters’ governance, funding, accountability, innovation, quality and public service applicable to Spain in the digital context (Reference CS02015-66543-P), belonging to the National Spanish Programme for Encouraging Excellent Scientific and Technical Research of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Furthermore, it is part of the activities promoted through the International Research Network of Communication Management- XESCOM (Reference: ED341D R2016/019), supported by Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria of Xunta de Galicia.

Sara Pérez-Seijo is a beneficiary of the Formación del Profesorado Universitario program (FPU16/06156) funded by Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

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Correspondence to Sara Pérez-Seijo .

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Pérez-Seijo, S., López-García, X. (2019). Five Ethical Challenges of Immersive Journalism: A Proposal of Good Practices’ Indicators. In: Rocha, Á., Ferrás, C., Paredes, M. (eds) Information Technology and Systems. ICITS 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 918. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11890-7_89

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