Abstract

This study investigates the impact of same-language subtitles on the immersion into audiovisual narratives as a function of the viewer’s language (native or foreigner). Students from two universities in Australia and one in Spain were assigned randomly to one of two experimental groups, in which they saw a drama with the original English soundtrack either with same-language English subtitles (n=81) or without subtitles (n=92). The sample included an English native control group, and Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Spanish groups with English as a foreign language. Participants used post-hoc Likert scales to self-report their presence, transportation to the narrative world, perceived realism, identification with the characters, and enjoyment. The main results showed that subtitles did not significantly reduce these measures of immersion. However, subtitles produced higher transportation, identification with the characters, and perceived realism scores, where the first language of viewers and their viewing habits accounted for most of this variance. Moreover, presence and enjoyment were unaffected by either condition or language. Finally, the main results also revealed that transportation to the narrative world appears to be the most revealing measure of immersion in that it shows the strongest and most consistent correlations, and is a significant predictor of enjoyment.

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between player and diegetic sound FX in immersive computer game environments and how this relationship leads, in large part, to the contextualization of the player within the virtual world of the game. This contextualization presupposes a primarily sonically-based perception of objects and events in the world and, in a multi-player game, this ultimately leads to communication between players through the medium of diegetic sound. The players’ engagement with, and immersion in, the game’s acoustic environment is the result of a relationship with sound that is technologically mediated. The game engine, for example, produces a range of environmental or ambient sounds and almost every player action has a corresponding sound. A variety of relevant theories and disciplines are assessed for the methodological basis of the points raised, such as film sound theory and sonification, and, throughout, the First-Person Shooter sub-genre is used as an exemplar. Such games include the «Doom» and «Quake» series, the «Half-Life» series and derivatives and later games such as «Left 4 Dead». The combination of the acoustic environment, the interactive placement of the player – as embodied by his virtual, prosthetic arms – in the environment and the sonic relationships between players produces the acoustic ecology. An exposition of this multi-player communication and the resultant acoustic ecology and player immersion, is the main objective of the essay.

Abstract

This paper compiles data on how the use of hypermedia, interactive multimedia and interfaces have changed the classical dynamics of human communications and education to create a new paradigm. This paradigm originates in the interface since it allows multidirectional and multimedia communications through interactions with the elements of which it is composed. This research describes the different aesthetic, narrative, emotional and value elements that are integrated within the cultural hypermedia interfaces. These hypermedia elements are fundamental components to be taken into account in the creation of educational interactive media products. The communicative functions are interchangeable between sender-receptor, author-reader-author, creator-user, professor-student... thanks to the introduction of multimedia interactive expressions and technological instruments that allow several types of interactions. This flexible functionality generates new communicative as well as dramatic models of interactive narrative, where the interaction of receptors-senders and reader-authors with the narrative actions occur at the character or avatar level. The interfacial aesthetic, narrative, emotional and value elements are studied, analyzed and described in detail thanks to an innovative model of analysis that can be used to for the implementation and design of interactive edutainment media products. The application of this model helped to create cultural content interfaces enabling not only the development of interactive educational workshops in the USA, Peru and Bolivia for more than 200 students, but also multisensory and immersive communications with quality.

Abstract

The possibilities of virtual reality technologies, on the one hand,and the strong influence of videogames as a cultural industry, on the other, are greatly affecting nonfiction digital rhetoric, and journalism in particular. Immersive journalism is an emerging trend that amplifies the impact of the story by creating a sensory and interactive experience. The author presented the firstdoctoral thesis on this topic and summarizes here the context and the main features of this kind of factual storytelling.

Abstract

News media organizations have been experimenting with immersive journalism formats in recent years. The search for new ways to tell stories is driven by technology and has given rise to new –and not so new– forms of expression. The initial enthusiasm has dissipated over the years, so the uncertainty of the future of immersive journalism justifies the study of the most potential ways of using this technology in journalism. This research was carried out in Finland and Spain, and it is based on a textual narrative analysis and a reception study comparing the online article and 360º video versions of the report Fukushima: Contaminated Lives from El país. The results identify the affordances of both formats and confirm that immersive journalism has the capacity to generate a greater emotional effect based on a greater perception of presence, realism and involvement, also having a positive impact on increasing interest and changing opinions on related topics. The narration of online article seems to work better only if there is large amount of information that has to be understood and contextualized. However, authors claim that, instead of an essential break, there are similarities between both formats, which are situated on the same continuum of emotionality and rationality. These findings also indicate that immersive storytelling can be an important part of the emotional or affective turn in contemporary journalism. The sensation of presence and empathy towards distant and complex realities emerge as the main distinguishing values of the kind of immersive journalism that Fukushima: Contaminated lives represents.