Nash, K orcid.org/0000-0001-6445-9628 (2018) Virtual reality witness: exploring the ethics of mediated presence. Studies in Documentary Film, 12 (2). pp. 97-100. ISSN 1750-3280
Abstract
The notion of immersive witness underpins much of the exploration of virtual reality (VR) by journalists and humanitarian organisations. Immersive witness links the experience of VR with a moral attitude of responsibility for distant others. In accounts of media witness, the ability of the media to sustain an experience of presence has played an important, albeit often implicit, role linking the spectator spatially and temporally to distant suffering. However, the concept of media witness has to date assumed that the media represent, that news stories and documentaries present to their audiences images and sounds that communicate something of an event. VR, in contrast, seeks to simulate, providing the audience with something of an experience that is linked in various ways to the experiences of others. It is this simulative function that is seen as fundamental to VR’s moral address. This paper explores the moral potential of VR suggesting that while there is much to recommend VR as a platform for humanitarian communication there is an inherent moral risk attached: the risk of improper distance. The United Nation’s VR work serves as a case study for exploring VR’s moral potential and the risk of improper distance.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Informa UK LImited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Documentary Film on 03 July 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2017.1340796. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Virtual Reality; Humanitarian communication; Ethics; Proper Distance; Empathy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jun 2017 16:30 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jan 2019 01:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/17503280.2017.1340796 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:118286 |