Robert Hernandez


Dubai: Virtual Reality (VR) is not a novelty as far as science is concerned. Though tracing its origins to the 1950s, it is more recently that VR started to become accessible to a wider public and incorporating cutting-edge advances. Recently, the New York Times earned a Best in Show at the Society for News Design (SND) Creative competition for its coverage “The Displaced”.

It is a series of stories highlighting the plight of refugee children and using VR as a storytelling device. Robert Hernandez, an expert in VR journalism, shares his thoughts about the technology being applied for real in the newsroom.



The New York Times on Monday earned Best in Show at the Society for News Design (SND) Creative Competition, for its combination print/digital presentation of “The Displaced,” a series of stories highlighting the plight of refugee children around the globe.



Gulf News: Do you believe the popularity of VR is here to stay?

Robert Hernandez: There is a long history of VR over-promising and being overhyped, and the truth is that there certainly is hype around the current version. That being said, this is quite different from the past. The technology is real and being rolled out now. And while I don’t expect this to go mainstream right away, VR will only grow, especially in the content side.

GN: How prevalent is the use of VR in newsrooms?

RH: Most newsrooms are cautious as they dip their toe in the VR water, but more and more are exploring this space. Obviously, leading the charge is New York Times, which gave their subscribers Google Cardboard viewers and launched a NYT VR app. They partnered with VR studios and producers to create different 360-video-based experiences. The Washington Post has partnered and launched a couple of experiences.

Frontline was awarded a Knight grant and has worked on several experiences. NBC-owned television stations have started shipping Ricoh Thetas to their stations, which represents the most common exploratory approach. Different approaches ... but more are coming in.

A pattern I am seeing is that everyone is focusing on 360-video, which is the easiest way to get into immersive VR but not many have gone into the deeper CGI/3D Unity/Unreal approach of VR, which unlocks potential unique experiences. You have seen these types of experiences done by Emblematic Group, Empathetic Media and Gannett early on.

GN: What are the required tools for newsrooms to start producing VR?

RH: It all depends on what your goal is, which is directly tied to your organisation’s audience. But, in general, an extremely affordable way to start is by getting a low-end 360 camera like the Theta or the Giroptic. While it requires a certain phone, the Samsung Gear 360 is likely the best option for a variety of reasons. Moving up in cost, there are GoPro 360 rigs like the Freedom 360 or 360 Heroes mount, or GoPro’s Omni rig.

To increase the production quality, you can add After Effects or the 360-specific software Skybox by Mettle. But don’t limit yourself to 360 video.

Download a Unity licence for free and start playing. You don’t need to be 3D artist since they have a Unity assets store that can help get models and plug-ins to produce true VR journalism experiences.

GN: How can VR help a storyteller in news design?

RH: This is all new and being explored. Every week more VR experiences are being published and each one trying new UI/UX approaches to help tell an immersive story. There is no standard or best practices.

That’s incredibly exciting and ripe for news designers to explore. Mike Alger recently released a video about VR Interface Design that is truly insightful.