Immersive journalism in university education in Spain: a census analysis of journalism degree programs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26441/RC25.2-2026-4546Keywords:
immersive journalism, Multimedia Journalism, 3d storytelling, Virtual Reality, journalism education, higher education, curricular innovationAbstract
Purpose. Immersive journalism, based on technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and 360° video, has gained increasing relevance in academic and professional discussions on journalism innovation. However, the extent to which these technologies have been effectively integrated into undergraduate journalism education remains largely unknown. Methodology. This study examines the presence, curricular weight, and pedagogical characteristics of immersive journalism content across all undergraduate Journalism programs in Spain (N = 42) through a content analysis of study plans and teaching guides updated to the 2024-25 academic year. Results and conclusions. The findings reveal that only 11 universities (26.2%) include immersive journalism content, with a marked disparity according to institutional ownership: 43.5% of private universities compared with only 5.3% of public institutions. All identified courses are elective, and 72.7% adopt a predominantly theoretical approach, contrasting with the recommendations of the specialized literature, which emphasizes experiential learning. In conclusion, the study highlights the empirical evidence of tensions between technological innovation and curriculum adaptation. Therefore, despite the growing academic and professional interest in immersive narratives, their integration into Spanish journalism training remains in its initial stages. Original contributions. The study provides one of the first systematic mappings of the incorporation of immersive journalism into Spanish journalistic training, contributing as a turning point in future research on the curricular design of this discipline.
Downloads
References
Barreda-Ángeles, M. (2018). Del selfie al vlog y la realidad virtual: Autopresentación, identidad y narcisismo. En L. M. Romero-Rodríguez y D. Caldevilla-Domínguez (Eds.), Docentes e investigadores desde una perspectiva innovadora. McGraw-Hill Interamericana de España.
Benítez de Gracia, M. J., y Herrera Damas, S. (2018). El reportaje inmersivo a través de vídeo en 360º: Diseño de un modelo de análisis. El Profesional de la Información, 27(1), 149–161. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.ene.14 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.ene.14
Berger, G., McDougall, J., Akyildiz, F., Kendrick, A., Mhlanga, B., Photiou, I., y Tong, J. (2021). Journalism: New challenges. UNESCO. https://en.unesco.org/news/journalism-new-challenges
Calleja, G. (2017): Desarrollar el espacio iberoamericano de educación superior desde las universidades. Nueva Revista. https://www.nuevarevista.net/espacio-iberoamericano-educacion-superior/
Cochrane, T., y Sissons, H. (2019). Immersive journalism: Panoramic video. En H. Leung, C. P. Lim, P. Lam, y T. C. Huang (Eds.), Technology in education: Innovative solutions and practices (pp. 91–102). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6861-5_8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6861-5_8
De la Peña, N., Weil, P., Llobera, J., Giannopoulos, E., Pomés, A., Spanìa, B., Friedman, D., Sánchez-Vives, M. V., y Slater, M. (2010). Immersive journalism: Immersive virtual reality for the first-person experience of news. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 19(4), 291–301. https://doi.org/10.1162/PRES_a_00005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/PRES_a_00005
Deuze, M., y Witschge, T. (2018). Beyond journalism: Theorizing the transformation of journalism. Journalism, 19(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916688550 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916688550
Domínguez-Martín, E. (2015). Periodismo inmersivo: Fundamentos para una forma periodística basada en la interfaz y la acción [Tesis doctoral, Universitat Ramon Llull]. TDX. https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/291910
Flores Vivar, J. M. (Ed.). (2019). Tecnologías del ecosistema periodístico: Realidad inmersiva, videojuegos, drones y otras tecnologías disruptivas en la nueva ecología de medios. Comunicación Social Ediciones.
Flores-Vivar, J. M., Moreno-Espinosa, P., & Barros-Garbín, S. (2025). Evolution of Television Cyberjournalism: Artificial Intelligence Avatars as ’News Anchors’ in International Media. VISUAL REVIEW. International Visual Culture Review, 17(3), 233–247. https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v17.5749 DOI: https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v17.5749
Hartmann, T. (2025). Being present in virtual reality and augmented reality: Explicating the psychology of immersive technology (XR). En R. L. Bailey y G. L. Read (Eds.), De Gruyter handbook of media psychology (pp. 359–372). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111292144-032 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111292144-032
Hartmann, T., y Hofer, M. (2022). I know it is not real (and that matters): Media awareness vs. presence in a parallel processing account of VR experience. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 3, 694048. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.694048 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.694048
Hossain, M. D., y Wenger, D. (2024). Journalism educators' perspectives on immersive storytelling and challenges to incorporating it into curricula. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 79(1), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958231164806
Jackson, P., y Stubbs, B. (2025). Practical guidelines for immersive journalism production. Australian Journalism Review, 47(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajr_00172_1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/ajr_00172_1
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
Krippendorff, K. (2013). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. SAGE.
Mabrook, R., y Singer, J. B. (2019). Virtual reality, 360° video, and journalism studies: Conceptual approaches to immersive technologies. Journalism Studies, 20(14), 2096–2112. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1568203 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1568203
Mairal-Usón, R. (2026): El Espacio Iberoamericano del Conocimiento. Nueva Revista. https://www.nuevarevista.net/el-espacio-iberoamericano-del-conocimiento/
Ngene, M. M., Ginikachukwu, V., y Chris-Ngwu, N. C. (2023). Knowledge and awareness of immersive journalism among journalism lecturers in select public and private universities in Enugu State. ESUT Journal of Management Sciences, 16(2). https://sl1nk.com/d5uglld
Pavlik, J. V. (2019). Journalism in the age of virtual reality: How experiential media are transforming news. Columbia University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/pavl18448
Pérez-Seijo, S. (2021). Periodismo inmersivo con vídeo 360 grados: Evolución, experiencia de usuario y producción de las radiotelevisiones públicas europeas [Tesis doctoral, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela]. MINERVA. http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27055
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press.
Salaverría, R. (2016). Redefinir al comunicador. El Profesional de la Información, 25(2), 163–167. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2016.mar.02 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2016.mar.02
Sidorenko Bautista, P., Herranz de la Casa, J. M., y Cantero de Julián, J. I. (2020). Periodismo inmersivo en España: Análisis de las experiencias de realidad virtual de los medios nacionales. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 26(3), 1105–1114. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.68877
Sundar, S. S., Kang, J., y Oprean, D. (2017). Being there in the midst of the story: How immersive journalism affects our perceptions and cognitions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(11), 672–682. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0271 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0271
Tang, X. (2026). Application effectiveness and optimization paths of virtual reality (VR) technology in journalism education. In Proceedings of the 2026 2nd International Conference on Digital Education and Information Technology (DEIT '26) (pp. 642–649). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3802607.3802709
Ufarte Ruiz, M. J., Calvo Rubio, L. M., & Murcia Verdú, F. J. (2020). Las tecnologías hi-tech en los grados en Periodismo. Planes de estudios, formación de los periodistas y propuestas de inserción curricular. adComunica, 20, 43–66. https://doi.org/10.6035/2174-0992.2020.20.3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/2174-0992.2020.20.3
UNESCO. (2023). Digital skills critical for jobs and social inclusion. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/digital-skills-critical-jobs-and-social-inclusion
Uskali, T., Gynnild, A., Jones, S., y Sirkkunen, E. (2020). Immersive journalism as storytelling: Ethics, production, and design. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429437748
Utne, T. (2023). Teaching immersive journalism production. In A. L. Sánchez Laws (Ed.), Insights on immersive journalism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003217008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003217008-5
Watson, Z. (2017). VR for news: The new reality? Digital News Project. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/vr-news-new-reality
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Copyright 2026 Journal of Communication and the authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Revista de Comunicación retains the copyright to published works under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License and allows the author to maintain these rights without restriction.
This journal and its articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which allows users to: share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, provided that they: give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made; do not use our content for commercial purposes; and/or remix or transform the material.
Portal de Revistas de la Universidad de Piura.