Google Digital News Initiative (DNI) Innovation Fund backs Euronews’ immersive journalism project
Euronews has announced that it will launch its virtual reality news reporting with funding from the DNI Innovation Fund. The project, under the framework of Google’s Digital News Initiative, will see Euronews producing regular multilingual 360 degree interactive videos around international current affairs.
Euronews has created an immersive 360 degree video interactive reporting format backed by Google’s innovation fund, the Digital News Initiative (DNI).
See more of the World with 360.
Euronews will become the first international newsroom to fully incorporate 360 degree interactive video news into its regular production workflow across all of its language editions. The productions will also include virtual reality versions of Euronews’ award-winning “No Comment” format. These programmes encourage the audience to come up with their own interpretations of the story and embody Euronews’ “All Views” Identity.
All Euronews’ teams – whether in the main newsroom in Lyon, in offices around Europe, or correspondents worldwide, or the newsroom of its sister channel Africanews, based in Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo – will be involved in pioneering the first regular multilingual* 360° interactive video production process at an international news organisation.
The Google Digital News Initiative chose to fund Euronews 360 in February as one of its 128 selected projects in Europe, and will be a source of financial backing for the Euronews 360 degree video initiative for three years.
The DNI fund is a collaboration between Google and European news publishers to support high quality journalism and encourage a more sustainable news ecosystem through technology and innovation.
more information: https://www.digitalnewsinitiative.com
Google’s funding will allow Euronews to produce an ambitious amount of intricate unique news as well as, introduce a specific workflow, involving their editorial, technical, journalists, producers, editors, graphic designers and sales teams.
Euronews’ teams will experiment with various interactive video formats to create a variety of content from “All Views” best suited to users worldwide. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data will help Euronews acquire an unrivalled degree of expertise for a consumer media outlet which will change how you see the news forever. This is cutting edge innovation at its best!
To secure the long-term financial viability of this development, and to ensure that it becomes an important component of Euronews’ digital business portfolio, sales teams will include the Euronews 360 tool in their multi-platform campaign propositions to advertisers.
* Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian
Duncan Hooper, Editor in chief, digital platforms, said: “We are delighted to be implementing this new interactive video production method, giving our audience the power to view the story from their own perspectives. Through our collaboration with the DNI we will be able to take advantage of the latest technological innovations, which now make it possible – and relatively simple – to harness virtual reality in the service of news and in your home.
This project is a perfect fit for Euronews’ “All Views” positioning, embodying a mission that aims to live and share a unique and global experience of news, knowledge and cultures, expressed through a genuine diversity.
We feel that immersive journalism provides a fresh perspective on news, for our journalists and our audience.
360° interactive reports immerse viewers to give them a greater sense of atmosphere. This sensory experience is also interactive – unlike a conventional report, everyone can choose their point of view.
The core mission of all Euronews’ teams is to offer their audience fact-based news that is as neutral as possible. This new dimension of journalism allows them to get even closer to unadulterated reality. We wish to offer our audience this new capability in order to highlight all perspectives, so that everyone can forge their own opinion.
Euronews is the only newsroom to inform its audience in 13 languages, and for some of these, will be the only media source to offer 360° global news.”
Euronews 360
The 360 degree video process will kick off this summer with the launch of availability in the production of No Comment 360, which is the iconic Euronews programme tailored to this new medium that allows the audience to select their interpretation of a video that speaks a thousand words. The newsroom will then also produce reports in Euronews’ editorial sphere (international news, culture, sport, high tech, etc.) voiced by the 13 language editions.
The 360° interactive videos are now easily available to the public on smartphones, tablets or computers – and with virtual-reality headsets for a more advanced experience.
Euronews’ 360° videos will be incorporated in the daily newsflow produced by the teams, on all of Euronews’ digital platforms without distinction: on euronews.com, on the 20 YouTube channels, and on the 13 Facebook accounts.
This package will be supplemented by VR360-dedicated platforms Vrideo and Littlstar, which attract enthusiasts of the immersive experiences enabled by virtual reality.
(Source: Euronews press release)
