Objective: Google Newslab and Google Zoo desired a deeper understanding of the experience of VR technologies among early adopters to support their thought leadership. More specifically, they sought to understand the meanings and feelings that consumers create and try to access through these technologies, and the implications that this has for journalistic story telling.
Approach: A team lead by Tom Maschio conducted 37 ethnographic interviews with early adopters of VR technologies and with journalists who work to produce VR videos. Interviews and real time VR experiences were documented by our ethnographic film-maker to bring our respondents’ experiences with VR to life.
Outcome: Based on our study and analysis we delivered a series of storytelling guideposts that the Google Team used to coin a new story telling concept native to VR: Story Living. Since the conclusion of our study this concept has been widely disseminated in Google thought leadership workshops and training sessions. The ideas underlying Story Living are also summarized in a widely circulated whitepaper and video.
