"What do digital technologies bring to humanity - new risks or new opportunities?"

Find the answer will help the first in Kazakhstan and Central Asia scientific laboratory of "Immersive Journalism" in Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, which was inaugurated on November 22, 2017 at the Faculty of Journalism.

Immersive journalism is a new digital platform for the transmission of news, reports and narrations in the virtual reality system, is new in the media of Kazakhstan and requires studying its influence on the audience.

Mathematicians, physicists, psychologists, sociologists and journalists will conduct complex research for the first time, creating plots on topics of Kazakhstan content using computer physics and virtual technologies, media design. You can see how the atomic tests took place at the Semipalatinsk test site or the shallowing of the Aral Sea, how ice melts on the tops of Alatau and what is happening in the bowels of Almaty. For this, such methods as computer modeling and computer physics, media design will be used to create close-to-reality pictures, avatars. The magistracy of the Department of Psychology and Sociology will conduct a series of psychological and field sociological studies to study the positive and negative effects of new media. The degree of responsibility of journalists will increase, since immersive journalism has a powerful psychological impact. Scientists of the laboratory will conduct a critically-comparative analysis of models of studying virtual reality and the use of immersive journalism, an analysis of the experience of foreign universities and practices of such media as CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, etc. In this academic year, 18 students of the Faculty of Journalism of KazNU passed a remote University of Austin, Texas, USA "Immersive journalism. A virtual reality".

With words of greeting and congratulations, the Director of the Department of Science and Scientific Innovations S.K. Mukhamedzhanov made a statement that “the creation of a laboratory using virtual reality technology is a significant contribution of university science to the implementation of the state program “Digital Kazakhstan”, for the first time unites scientists in the natural and human sciences.” Dean of the Faculty of Journalism S. Mehedubek noted that "the establishment of the laboratory will enhance the quality training of scientists in the field of media and communications, raise the efficiency and competitiveness of Kazakhstani journalists." Vice-rector for International Relations of the University of Leicester, UK, Professor Sarah Dixon, as well as the staff of the University Dr Michael Green and Dr Allister Smeeton noted that the School of Media and Communications of the University is building plans for joint scientific projects in the area of ​​multimedia with KazNU named after al-Farabi. Words of support were also heard from representatives of the Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory of Stanford University, USA. Heads of the laboratory Professor of Political Science and Journalism Galiya Ibrayeva and Professor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Gulnar Balakayeva noted that "the laboratory's research will make a significant contribution to the development of new areas of modern journalism in the country, will create the basis for information security and psychological comfort of obtaining information on new digital media." Magistrates of the Faculty of Journalism showed a small play on the theme "The emergence and role of immersive journalism in the modern world."

The development of new digital technologies is also risks, but even greater opportunities. Immersive journalism is actively developing in Western countries. Thanks to new technologies, we have the opportunity to be a part of history, participants in events described in news articles, reports from the scene. The laboratory will be an excellent scientific and practical platform for modern and future journalism in Kazakhstan.

Press center of KazNU