The effect of the news watched by virtual reality technologies on memory and understanding

This study aims to identify the emergence of immersive journalism, a new type of journalism, and to define the impact of VR journalism on remembering and understanding in the context of media psychology. In this direction, first of all, new types of journalism emerged in parallel with technological developments, and then the recent development of VR journalism is examined in parallel with the developments in media. In the research, the first applications of VR journalism; New York Times, BBC, CNN, Euronews and Guardian Newspapers were analyzed by using content analysis to describe the technical features of the news. During the application phase of the study, VR news and online news were selected/displayed to the participant group consisting of 30 people. In the experimental study with posttest design which was designed to investigate the cognitive effects of VR journalism, participants' level of recall and understanding of news were analyzed. Findings from the study; compared to online news, VR revealed that the news is better remembered and understood. In the study; It has been understood that VR journalism is currently in the development stage and with the widespread use of virtual reality technologies on a mass scale, it has an important potential in terms of cognitive effects on the mass of the traces. Keywords: Immersive Journalism, Virtual Reality, Media Psychology, VR Journalism