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This paper presents a state-of-the-art overview on journalism and its opportunities and challenges in virtual reality. First we take a look at what kind of real-life journalistic experiments there have been made in this field so far, then we analyze the research literature on journalistic VR. The paper proceeds to discuss the emergence of virtual reality and immersive journalism explored in the latest reports in the fields of HCI and VR design. In order to analyse VR-journalism further, early draft of analysis model is being developed based on sample of three VR-productions and four VR-applications. The paper concludes to discuss the results of the analysis and outlines more advanced and interdisciplinary research approach for studying and designing journalistic VR productions.

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Abstract. We conducted a five-week field trial on mobile crowdsourcing of hyperlocal news content to 1) understand the readers' experiences and 2) explore factors affecting their participation. In the end of the study the participants were surveyed with an online questionnaire (17/104 respondents) and five participants were interviewed. Although respondents and interviewees were enthusiastic about the trial, the activity in the trial was low. Results indicate that participant characteristics (age, gender, participation motivations and hobbyist background in photography) and task characteristics in terms of the subjectively perceived task significance (possible impact on important issues in the environment or on community), task relevance (related to the background and participation motivation), and task engagingness have an effect on the participation. In addition, participation was influenced by the estimated needed effort vs. the expected benefit (monetary benefit or having a possibility to influence), vicinity to the assignment location, enjoyment of the activity, and the monetary reward. To plan and manage the crowdsourcing activity the news publishers need information about the characteristics of the participants, participation patterns and motivations that could be provided by the crowdsourcing platform.

We studied the mobile users' preferences and concerns of using location-based assignments (LBA) and geotagging in crowdsourced news making. First, nine readers who had submitted reader's phtos were interviewed about their perceptions of LBA and geotagging scenarios. Second, a quasi-experiment in field conditions was carried out with nineteen participants. After completing four LBA tasks with a mobile phone, participants were interviewed on their perceptions and asked to complete a questionnaire on their preferences for receiving LBA and usage of geotags. Findings indicate that the perceived benefits of LBA and geotagging are greater than the perceived risks. The task type, temporal context, preciseness of location query, proximity to the reporting location, parallel tasks, social context and incentives affected the participation preferences. We propose a framework for participation preferences to support further studies in locationbased crowdsourcing and in the development of crowdsourcing processes and systems.