As if it was not a grand enough honor to present the JJIE Virtual World Journalism Project at the 17th International Symposium on Online Journalism last night, the research team was pleasantly surprised and greatly honored when presented with the ISOJ Top Rated Research Paper award for the project’s research, Journalism: How One University Used Virtual Worlds to Tell True Stories.
All of us from the JJIE Virtual World Journalism Project Research Team would like to thank the #ISOJ for the opportunity to share our work at the conference in Austin, TX this weekend.
Moreover, we’d like to thank all who were involved with the project (aside from members of the research team), including ONA, who provided us with the funding to make the project possible, the JJIE staff members and Jim Walls, who taught us valuable lessons about investigative journalism, Fred Lewis and Claudette Enners, who supported and assisted with helpful knowledge during our weekly meetings, all our interviewees (from Steve Reba at the Barton Law Clinic at Emory who introduced us to the Christopher story, and Pete Colbenson, who shared his knowledge of juvenile justice, to the many people we interviewed to cover the stories), Kennesaw State University students and faculty who attended our campus presentation and helped to facilitate discussion of immersive journalism on campus, and lastly, the eleven student interns who worked tirelessly and collaboratively for 15+ weeks to bring this project to life. Thank you everyone!
Below is a video overview of our virtual world project from our ISOJ 2016 presentation at the award ceremony.
For anyone interested in learning more about the project, visiting the JJIE Virtual World with your own avatar, or starting a similar project of your own, please do not hesitate to contact us directly through this site or email gwenettewriter@gmail.com for a project consultation.
Also, please continue to follow our progress blog, as we ultimately hope to continue our project to expand the knowledge and possibilities of virtual world immersive journalism.