How Students Use Immersive Media to Tell the Story of Coral Resilience

Students and faculty at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) travel to different locations around the United States each year to tell compelling stories about scientific communities. It’s all part of the Science & Memory project, which gives students experiential learning opportunities related to science communication.

During a trip to Moku o Lo’e, a small island off the coast of Hawaii, two SOJC graduate students and three faculty focused on using immersive media, such as underwater 360-degree video and augmented reality, to tell the story of researchers seeking to understand how to help coral thrive.

Using immersive videography allowed the communication students to transport viewers to places and experiences they could never have had on their own. “It’s just a different world when you’re there underwater and seeing it swim all around you, hearing the sounds of the waves crashing,” said videographer Sam Morrison, a 2024 graduate of the SOJC’s Immersive Media Communication Master’s program. “What we’ve found is that those sorts of experiences leave more lasting emotional effects on the audience and viewers so people end up caring more.”

Learn more:
Science & Memory project: https://scienceandmemory.uoregon.edu/
Center for Science Communication Research: https://scr.uoregon.edu/
UO School of Journalism and Communication: https://journalism.uoregon.edu/
Immersive Communication Master’s: https://journalism.uoregon.edu/academ...