Effects of 360° video on attitudes toward disaster communication: Mediating and moderating roles of spatial presence and prior disaster media involvement

Julia Daisy Fraustino, Ji Young Lee, Sang Yeal Lee, Hongmin Ahn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

Visual media technologies such as 360° video, augmented reality, and virtual reality are on the rise for immersive storytelling in a variety of public relations contexts. Yet there is a profound lack of scholarly research in public relations, crisis communication, and disaster communication to explore the effects of content displayed using these delivery formats on publics’ responses. To begin addressing the knowledge gap, this work reports results from a laboratory experiment investigating effects of media modality (traditional unidirectional video content vs. 360° omnidirectional video content) on attitudes toward the disaster communication content. Results demonstrate that 360° video featuring the aftermath of a natural disaster yields enhanced attitudes toward the helpful impact of the content. Importantly, mediation analyses show that (1) a sense of spatial presence underlies these effects, and (2) the mediating effects of spatial presence are attenuated by involvement with similar disaster media coverage (indirect experience).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)331-341
Number of pages11
JournalPublic Relations Review
Volume44
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2018

Keywords

  • 360° video
  • Crisis communication
  • Disaster communication
  • Immersive media
  • Presence

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