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Immersive journalism (IJ), where individuals engage in a news story from a first-person perspective using interactive technologies, has become increasingly popular in recent years. Such stories may improve the impact of journalism on the audience by enhancing feelings and emotions associated with the news content. Studies have shown that rather than undermining rationality, emotion could increase engagement towards news pieces, and improve knowledge of social issues. Emotional personalization (EP), a strategy where the production of news content involves the emotional testimony of ordinary citizens at the heart of the story, is therefore increasingly employed. This study explores how EP, as well as the modality of IJ content, influences our perceptions and cognitions with regards to an IJ piece on war and conflict. 193 participants took part in a 2 (EP: present vs. absent). 2 (modality: VR vs. desktop) experiment. Participants in the EP-present condition reported stronger feelings of presence and greater story recall, while those in the VR condition experienced lower emotional valence and stronger feelings of empathy. Our results support current literature on IJ and EP and suggest that with the rising interest in immersive technologies, sustained investigation on the implications of EP strategies in IJ is crucial.

Although immersive virtual environments can influence food-related thoughts, emotions and behavior, the influence of repeated exposure to food cues in such environments has rarely been explored. This study seeks to understand if habituation, a decrease in one’s physiological and behavioral response that results from repeated simulation, can take place while repeatedly watching 360-degrees of food being consumed. The influence of scent as an olfactory cue is further explored, based on past research on embodied cognition. In Study One (n = 42), participants who viewed 30 repetitions of someone eating an M&M ate significantly fewer M&Ms than those who viewed three repetitions. Study Two (n = 114) used a 2 (behavior: eating M&M/inserting a coin) × 2 (repetitions: 3/30) between-subjects experiment to confirm that results from Study One were due to habituation of the consumption video, finding that there were only significant differences between repetitions in the M&M condition. Finally, Study Three (n = 161) comprised a 2 (repetition: 3/30) × 2 (scent: present/absent) between-subjects experiment. Participants in the 30-repetition condition and those in the scent-present condition ate significantly fewer M&Ms respectively, but no interaction effects were found. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.