This article discuss how the traditional format of journalistic news video reporting is adaptable to the 360-degree video format. One of the main issues regarding this immersive news format is how the viewers react to this form of news reporting and if they perceive the information presented in a news story with this format. If and how traditional video news journalism formats interlock with 360 journalism and immersive journalism at large. This raises the key question of in what extent 360 journalism is useful in news reporting and how it as its best should be used in video news journalism.

To address this question, this article draws on experimental empirical laboratory research where three 360 video news reports were produced according to traditional journalistic news video narratives. The viewer reactions to this reporting were analyzed using laboratory biometric psychophysiological data, observation studies and semi structured interviews about the respondent’s reception and decoding of the news stories in 360 video format. These analyzes examines viewer levels of attention, interactivity, immersion and recapitulation of affective reactions and presented facts. The main finding is that the traditional news video format as such is not fully adaptable to the 360 video format or 360 video journalism all together.

The article examines, describes and incentivize why this is not the case and discuss and suggest how 360 videos can be useful in news reporting without compromising professional journalistic core values. The article however also questions the perception that it is strictly the task of the news journalist to articulate “objective figures and facts” and argue that viewers occasionally could be given the additional opportunity to feel and experience certain news themselves through 360 videos.