Arizona Republic project 'The Wall' receives $28,000 grant from Journalism 360 Challenge

A project documenting the impact of the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, being led by The Arizona Republic and the USA TODAY Network, is one of 11 challenge winners and grant recipients from Journalism 360, a news initiative funded by Google News Lab and the Knight Foundation.

The $28,000 grant will go toward an in-depth project that is documenting the border and proposed wall using virtual reality, data collection, aerial video and documentary shorts.

The goal of the challenge is to “help advance Journalism 360’s mission of developing an international network of journalists to explore and share knowledge.” The grant is sponsored by Google News Lab, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Online News Association.

“The Wall” is an innovative multimedia experience that will expand upon the USA TODAY Network’s video storytelling. The project is being led by Nicole Carroll, vice president of news and editor of The Republic.

“We are thankful to receive this grant,” Carroll said. “It will further develop the project, and I look forward to seeing how our journalists will continue to innovate, experiment, and learn throughout the process.” 

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, senior vice president and chief transformation officer at Gannett, said she is honored to receive the grant.

"This project is a great example of how we are able to leverage the power of our network and technology to produce impactful journalism,” Wadsworth said.

Journalism 360 was launched in September 2016 with the goal of accelerating the use of immersive storytelling in news. The focus is on virtual, augmented and mixed reality, as well as 360-degree video.

ASU's Cronkite School also gets grant

 The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University was also the recipient of a challenge award. The journalism school will receive a $30,000 grant to help with Location-Based VR Data Visualization. 

The project, led by Retha Hill, helps journalists and others create location-based data visualizations in a virtual reality format. Users could explore crime statistics or education data on neighborhoods through data overlays on virtual reality footage of these areas.

The 11 winners receive between $15,000 and $30,000 each in grants. They will develop their projects over the next six months to a year and will share their findings in early 2018.

“The overwhelming response to the open call demonstrated that journalists are seizing the opportunity to use immersive storytelling to engage people in new ways,” said Jennifer Preston, Knight Foundation vice president for journalism, in a statement.  “There is still much to learn and the winners will help lead the way by identifying best practices and tools and expanding the Journalism 360 network.”

Other challenge winners

Here are the other nine winners of the Journalism 360 Challenge, according to the Online News Association: 

Aftermath VR app by New Cave Media ($20,000 | Project lead: Alexey Furman | Kyiv, Ukraine | @alexeyfurman): Creating an app that would apply photogrammetry, which uses photography to measure and map objects, to re-create three-dimensional scenes of news events (such as mass shootings or natural disasters) and narrate what happened through voiceover and archival footage.

AI-generated Anonymity in VR Journalism by the University of British Columbia ($30,000 | Project leads: Taylor Owen, Kate Hennessy and Steve DiPaola | Vancouver, Canada | @taylor_owen, @katehennessy, @DipaolaSteve): Helping reporters test whether an emotional connection can be maintained in immersive storytelling formats when a character is algorithmically distorted to hide identity. The tool aims to provide investigative journalists with a means to preserve the confidentiality of a subject, while using an animation to ensure viewers remain emotionally connected.

Community and Ethnic Media Journalism 360 by City University of New York ($27,000 | Project lead: Bob Sacha | New York | @bobsacha): Making immersive storytelling more accessible to community and ethnic media through a program that provides hands-on training and access to equipment. The team also aims to produce a “how to” guide for others on using immersive storytelling to cover local happenings, such as festivals.

Dataverses: Information Visualization into VR Storytelling by the Outliers Collective ($25,000 | Project lead: Oscar Marin Miro | Barcelona, Spain | @outliers_es, @oscarmarinmiro): Making it easier to integrate data visualizations into immersive storytelling through a platform that would allow the integration of virtual reality videos and photos with facts. For example, a user could show a map of Earth highlighting places without water access and linking each area to a virtual-reality video that explores the experience of living there.

Facing Bias by the Washington Post ($30,000 | Project lead: Emily Yount | Washington, D.C. | @PostGraphics, @emilyyount): Developing a smartphone tool that will use augmented reality to analyze a reader’s facial expressions while they view images and statements that may affirm or contradict their beliefs. The aim is to give readers a better understanding of the bias we all bring to a story and to improve trust in news by creating a personal connection to the content.

Spatial and Head-Locked Stereo Audio for 360 Journalism by NPR ($15,000 | Project lead: Nicholas Michael | Washington, D.C. | @NPR, @nicktmichael): Developing best practices for immersive storytelling audio by producing two virtual-reality stories with a particular focus on sound-rich scenes. The project will explore, test and share spatial audio findings from these experiments.

Immersive Storytelling from the Ocean Floor by the MIT Future Ocean Lab ($30,000 | Project lead: Allan Adams | Cambridge, Massachusetts | @MIT_FutureOcean, @AllanAdamsYG): Developing a camera and lighting system to produce immersive stories underwater and uncover the hidden experiences that lie beneath the ocean’s surface.

Voxhop by Virtual Collaboration Research Inc. ($30,000 | Project lead: Ainsley Sutherland | Cambridge, Massachusetts | @VCRconnect): Making it easy to craft audio-driven virtual-reality stories through a tool that would allow journalists to upload, generate or construct a three-dimensional environment and narrate the scene from multiple perspectives. For example, a reporter could construct a three-dimensional crime scene and include voiceovers detailing accounts of what transpired in the space.

Scene VR by Northwestern University Knight Lab ($20,000 | Project lead: Zach Wise | Evanston, Illinois | @zlwise, @knightlab): Developing a tool that would make it easier for journalists and others to create virtual-reality photo experiences that include interactive navigation, using their smartphone or a camera.

USA TODAY NETWORK and staff contributed to this article.