Storytelling is where it’s at in 2017. Of course, for those of us who are veterans in journalism, it’s always been about storytelling, from our first byline. However, what we’ll see much more, across a variety of genres, in 2017 is the growth of new ways of telling stories, ways that go beyond a headline, summary, and text. Robust storytelling aimed at mobile devices is already a reality for some, but there’s much more experimentation to come, at publications ranging from local daily and weekly regional newspapers to monthly magazines and beyond.
One form of storytelling that will gain momentum: virtual reality. It’s no coincidence: Editors and publishers are looking for ways to tell stories on mobile device, and the future of virtual reality is also on mobile. For many newsrooms, VR is going to be the one big area for experimentation in 2017. The Google News Lab, Knight Foundation, and the Online News Association have joined their forces to help newsrooms experiment with immersive storytelling. Journalism 360 will use a fund of $500,000 to give award grants ranging from $5,000 to $35,000 for innovative projects.
Just to give you an idea of what is pushing VR to the top of the project list:
“I’ve already started seeing media companies posting job offers for 360-degree video producers or VR designers,” says Deniz Ergurel, CEO and founder of Haptical, a firm devoted to virtual reality with emphasis on its news applications.
We hear about Apple’s new plans on launching a new iPhone with augmented reality technology in 2017. We hear that Tim Cook might announce a clear glass iPhone that pops up into a head display which will allow consumers to move, walk, shoot, and play in six degrees of freedom. Apple was awarded with new patents for a wireless VR headset this fall. These things will come to fruition in 2017. Storytelling using VR will be easier to achieve, and more members of the audience will be prepared to welcome it.
Mario Garcia is CEO and founder of Garcia Media.
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Erin Pettigrew A year of reflection in tech
Molly de Aguiar Philanthropists galvanize around news
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Helen Havlak Chasing mobile search results
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Andrea Silenzi Podcasts dive into breaking news analysis
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
Lam Thuy Vo The primary source in the age of mechanical multiplication
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
P. Kim Bui The year journalism teaches again
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
Carrie Brown-Smith We won’t do enough
AX Mina 2017 is for the attention innovators
Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Reyhan Harmanci Bear witness — but then what?
Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Sue Schardt Objectivity, fairness, balance, and love
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Tracie Powell Building reader relationships
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
Swati Sharma Failing diversity is failing journalism
Dhiya Kuriakose The year of digital detoxing
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Corey Ford The year of the rebelpreneur
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity
Amie Ferris-Rotman Вслед за Россией
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Renée Kaplan Pure reach has reached its limit
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Liz Danzico The triumph of the small
Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Peter Sterne A dangerous anti-press mix
David Weigel A test for online speech
Sarah Marshall Focusing on the why of the click
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
Kathleen Kingsbury Print as a premium offering
Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
Andy Rossback The year of the user
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Olivia Ma The year collaboration beats competition
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Adam Thomas The coming collaboration across Europe
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Mandy Velez The audience is the source and the story
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Robert Hernandez History will exclude you, again
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Earn trust by working for (and with) readers
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Margarita Noriega From pinning tweets to tweeting pins
Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
Dan Colarusso Let’s make live video we can love
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data