翻譯|熊一然 審核|楊家懿
1.What is Immersive Journalism?
1.沉浸式新聞是什麼？
Immersive Journalism is the production of news in a form in which people can gain first-person experiences of the events of situation described in news stories.[1]
沉浸式新聞是一種能讓觀眾從新聞故事中獲得相關事件或場景的第一人稱體驗的一種新聞生產方式。
In immersive journalism, the audience will be allowed to enter a virtually recreated scenario representing the news story, and thus become a participant.
在沉浸式新聞中，觀眾能夠進入一個虛擬重構的代表新聞故事的場景，從而成為這個新聞故事的參與者。
Typically, the participant will be represented in the form of a digital avatar. Through the animated 3D digital representation, the participant can see the world from the first-person perspective.
通常，參與者將被一個數字化身所代表。通過這個動畫的3D替身，參與者能夠從第一人稱的角度來感受新聞中的世界。
2.Project Syria – Bring the daily trauma of Syrian war to life
2.《敘利亞項目》—還原敘利亞戰場上的痛苦
Project Syria is a 2014 project launched by the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Lab. It uses VR goggles[2] to place virtual visitors inside the precisely recreated world of a Syrian citizen caught in the conflict.
《敘利亞項目》是由南加州大學交互媒體實驗室於2014年發起的一個項目。它利用VR眼鏡，將體驗者們帶入虛擬重構的場景中，親身感受被戰火困擾的敘利亞公民所處的環境。
It’s regarded as an exemplar of “immersive journalism” owing to its capacity to people inside the news story.
它能夠將參與者帶入新聞故事中去，被認為是沉浸式新聞的一個範例。
As is known to all, Syria has always been the most dangerous country in the world to see a reporter. It’s reported that media coverage since the 2013 chemical attack has trailed off precipitously.
眾所周知，敘利亞一直是世界上對新聞工作者而言最危險的國家。據報道，2013年的化學攻擊發生之後，有關敘利亞的媒體報道量已經急劇減少。
And that’s why virtual reality technology matters. Thanks to virtual reality technology, there is now a way to put people outside Syria on the ground in the middle of the war without risking their safety.
而這，正是虛擬現實技術大放異彩的原因。虛擬現實技術的出現，使得敘利亞之外的人們能“置身”與戰場之中，同時他們的安全也不會受到威脅。
Project Syria gives the participants two scenarios. One is a bomb explosion on a busy street in Aleppo, and the other is a refugee camp. To rebuild the two scenarios, the team had to conduct extensive research to make the situations as accurate as possible.
《敘利亞項目》為參與者們提供了兩個場景，第一個是在阿勒頗繁忙街道上的一次爆炸，第二個則是一個難民營。為了重建這兩個場景，項目團隊需要進行大量的調查來儘可能保證場景的精確。
For instance, for the bomb scenario, the team had analyzed diverse video form the aftermath of the explosion to come as close as possible to duplicating the actual event.
例如，為了完成爆炸場景的重建，團隊分析了大量的在那場爆炸發生後流出的現場視頻，來確保他們所復刻的場景與真實場景儘可能地一致。
Project Syria was displayed in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and people’s reactions after viewing it have been really intense. That might be a great beginning.
《敘利亞項目》在倫敦維多利亞阿爾伯特博物館展映後，人們的反映十分強烈。對於沉浸式新聞而言，這也許是一個好的開始。
As VICE commented on it, “putting people into Project Syria obviously won’t end the civil war that’s currently tearing the country apart.
正如VICE所評論的，“把人們帶入敘利亞項目中顯然並不會終止這場正在分裂這個國家的內亂。
But the act of bearing witness is still vital, and the empathetic experience offered by virtual reality offers us the chance to bear witness like never before, and, in the process, better understand the plight of civilians caught in war.”
但是，‘成為目擊者’的行動仍然是十分關鍵的。虛擬現實所提供給我們的同理心體驗帶給了我們史無前例的‘成為目擊者’的機會。在這個過程中，我們將更能理解敘利亞人民所遭受的苦難。”
3.What distinguishes Immersive Journalism?
3.沉浸式新聞有何特點？
1）Objectivity and the sense of being on scene
1) 堅守客觀性 營造在場感
Immersive Journalism doesn’t change the principle of objectivity in traditional journalism. What distinguishes immersive journalism and traditional journalism is the “sense of presence”.
沉浸式新聞並沒有改變傳統新聞的客觀性原則。使沉浸式新聞區別於傳統新聞的，是一種“現場感”。
Nonny de la Pena, the producer of Project Syria said in her TED speech, “You’re in the middle of that scene, and you hear those sounds, and you see the injured around you. It’s an incredibly scaring and real feeling.”
正如諾尼·德拉·佩納，《敘利亞項目》的製作人，在她的TED演講中所說，“你就在現場，你聽到那些聲音，你看到傷員就在你的身邊。這是一種不可思議的真實且駭人的體驗。”
2) From viewers to participants
2) 從觀看者到參與者
Actually the immersive journalism is in some way quite similar to the VR documentaries. What’s different is that the participants in immersive journalism are far more free.
事實上，沉浸式新聞在某種層面上與VR紀錄片十分相似。但這二者的不同在於，沉浸式新聞的參與者們更加自由，他們可以運動和互動。
In a VR documentary, the viewers just sit there, wearing their VR goggles, viewing the events. They can’t move, they can’t act, no matter how vivid experience they got, they are just viewers.
在VR紀錄片中，觀看者們只是坐在位置上，戴上VR眼鏡，觀看整個事件。他們不能移動，也不能有所行動。不管他們所獲得的體驗多麼生動，他們也只是觀看者。
But in immersive journalism, the exhibition space itself is equipped with motion sensing cameras that track your movement around the staging area, translating that real movement into the virtual environment.
而在沉浸式新聞中，展覽場地自身配有運動感知攝像機，它可以記錄下你在場地內的運動軌跡，並且把你的運動軌跡轉化進虛擬場景中去。
For example, in Project Syria, based on the real-place audios and videos the team found the explosion time and spots by dealing with a large number of data and restored the authentic scene.
例如，在《敘利亞項目》中，項目團隊基於真實的音頻與視頻，在分析了大量數據之後找到了爆炸的時間與地點，並復刻了真實的場景。
The audience is like in the middle of a Syria block which is suffering an explosion, and they will witness how the explosion happened and how the injured people panicked.
觀眾就好像置身於一個正在遭受轟炸的敘利亞街區的中央，他們將身臨其境地看到爆炸是怎樣發生的、傷員有多麼恐慌。
3) Authenticity and the sense of powerlessness
3) 真實性與無力感
When the audience are seeing a immersive journalism work, their experience is quite like a game player’s. However, in the games, the player can fight, can change things, can do things to achieve their goal.
當觀眾們在體驗一個沉浸式新聞作品時，他們的體驗與一個遊戲玩家的體驗十分相似。然而，在網絡遊戲中，玩家可以戰鬥，可以做出改變，可以採取行動來達到他們的目標。
But in the immersive journalism, the participant are just a digital avatar, they don’t have the power to change anything. As Nonny de la Pena said in TED, “I won’t give you a real body or a physical existence in the virtual world, because the viewer shouldn’t have the agency to change the history.”
但是在沉浸式新聞中，參與者只是一個數字化身，他們沒有任何力量去改變任何事。正如諾尼·德拉·佩納在TED的舞臺上所說，“我不會給你一個在虛擬世界裡存在的身體或者一個物理存在形式，因為觀看者不應該有介質去改變歷史。
And this principle, on the one hand, consolidates the authenticity of journalism; on the other hand, it deepens the sense of powerlessness of the audience.
也正是這樣的原則，一方面鞏固了新聞的真實性；另一方面，也加深了參與者的無力感。
References
[1]Nonny de la Pena. Immersive Journalism: Immersive Virtual Reality for the First-Person Experience of News[J]. Presence, 2010, 19(4):291-301.
[2] Goggle原意指“護目鏡”、“泳鏡”，VR Goggles是VR眼鏡的一種。
[3]Christopher Malmo. A New Virtual Reality Tool Brings the Daily Trauma of the Syrian War to Life[EB/OL]. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/jp5jx3/virtual-reality-is-bringing-the-syrian-war-to-life.
關鍵字: Journalism Immersive Syria
