Effects and risks of immersive journalism: technological and ethical aspects

This article explores ethical issues arising from the use of virtual reality technology in journalism, which contribute to the increase of user involvement in the narrative. In this case, the virtual world is often perceived by the recipient as authentic, resulting in the substitution of realities and the formation of false impressions and memories. In this regard, media experts raise the issue of professional and ethical standards of journalistic behavior in this area. Creators of journalistic VR materials must take into account the possible risks related to both data privacy and the psycho-emotional state of users. The article examines some psychological effects in a virtual environment, such as the «storyliving» effect, which replaced «storytelling», and the empathy effect, raises the acute question of perceiving the experience gained in this environment because researchers doubt the extremely positive impact of these effects in virtual reality. So, empathy can influence the social interaction of people, and makes them emotionally vulnerable, and changes people’s beliefs and perceptions, so it should be used with caution in journalism. The practical implications of the article are the analysis of foreign and domestic journalistic materials created with the use of virtual reality technology, involving ethical methods of engaging the audience in the narrative and actualizing the moral and ethical principles of a media specialist for the competent work in the field of VR. It takes into account the context, the target audience and other aspects of the project production and distribution. The ethical attitude of a modern media specialist and VR journalist, besides other things, should be sensitive to the context and details of the implementation of specific experimental paradigms, to those aspects that cannot be captured by a general code of conduct, following the recommendations set out in the article will allow you to «match the settings». The ethical attitude of the modern media specialist is essential in new ethical and technological standards of teaching. The article contains several recommendations based on the most important journalistic codes and international standards of professional ethics for journalists.