News Impact Summit: Emotions and digital storytelling

The game industry has come a long way since video game has become mainstream in the 1980s. From the Legend of Zelda to World of Warcraft, and now VR game consoles rolling out, there are many advances in the way games tell stories. What types of games have potential in telling engaging stories? Where is technology taking us? We will look at some of the recent examples of games and discuss the role that emotion and technology play in game storytelling.

Do VR and 360 videos actually have an emotional impact on viewers? Can immersive storytelling really change the way we feel about the key issue happening in our society? The Huffington Post's RYOT has been reporting humanitarian crises and social issues all around the world through innovative 360 videos and VR with its mission to bring the issues closer to the audience.

Discover the tools that can help journalists convey news stories to audiences looking to interact and explore. This session will showcase the tools and provide examples from across the world.

What makes an op-ed effective? This session led by Jonathan Stein, the Managing Editor of Project Syndicate that has provided readers with original, engaging, and thought-provoking commentaries by the world's leading economists, political analysts, statesmen, scientists, and activists will explore strategies for crafting and presenting authoritative commentaries, boosting readership, and increasing audience engagement.

Aron Pilhofer has been on the frontline of newsroom innovation and evolutions over his 20 years of journalism career. After his time at The New York Times and The Guardian, he is moving back to the US for his new role as the James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University. This keynote interview will cover his perspectives on the future of digital transformation in today's journalism, and discuss the future story formats, workflows, skill sets and education.

Earlier this year, the Guardian released its first VR story that places the viewer inside a US solitary confinement prison cell. Complex, sensitive and often emotional stories can be told in a more immersive way thanks to new technologies, and there is no difference for documentaries. What does VR mean for documentaries? What has The Guardian learned along the way in producing 6x9 Solitary Confinement? Lindsay will share her view on way VR is an interesting medium and what the next steps are for The Guardian.

The human brain is filled with perception, cognitive, and social biases. There are lots of hidden information and even emotions about ourselves that we do not even realised to have. VPRO, the Dutch public broadcaster is levelling up to open the debate about data and privacy with their audience through an interactive "Mirror Room" where one goes through "mixed reality" experience to rediscover him/herself.

Investigative reporting holds power in different sectors whether it is government or business accountable. Especially facts need to be proved and verified in investigative stories. SVT, the Swedish Television Broadcaster, has developed a guideline and workflow to ensure their leads are accurate. This session covers how SVT's investigation team deals with day-to-day verification and fact-checking for their investigation.

What metrics matter for social video? What does success with social video look like? This session will reveal exclusive social engagement benchmarks for Facebook video, drawn from Wochit's network of leading media partners. We'll look at some of the best examples of social video from the Wochit partners, and see exactly how brands including Gruppo Espresso, CBS, Time Inc, and El Mundo use Wochit to make social video.

Kijk Verder, an online-only special feature by de Volkskrant, a Dutch national daily has been experimenting new story formats to captivate their online readers through interactive, multimedia stories. Probably the most internationally known example is their Donald Trump Votewiser that was covered by a number of international media houses. What are their next new editorial strategies? Kustaw will take you on a quick tour of the recent projects they've worked on and share his views on the next steps.

Don McCullin, a British photojournalist once said "photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” What is the role of photography in the digital age and how painful human stories can be told through photography in an digital environment? This session will feature two experienced photojournalism experts to discuss how they approach complex stories through the lens.

Is objectivity at stake when our emotions are involved? What is the best way to approach complex human stories and how should we tell them in an online environment? This final session will discuss the role of emotions in today's digital journalism, and in which way journalists should tell stories that have impact on people's lives and societies.

*** This session is co-organised by Journalism Grants