Total Immersion's Augmented Reality program D'Fusion means you can "insert real-time interactive objects into live video images," according to the company's Web site. This is especially exciting for journalists because it means we can insert virtual reporters into video of potentially dangerous situations. A news company could create a Second Life-type reporter avatar and make it appear to be reporting from the middle of a war zone without fear that the company would lose another journalist to the violence.
This has the potential to replace all on-air journalists with virtual beings, which cost much less in salary and don't have human traits like greed or fear. The producers could just program the avatars to speak the scripted words and there would be no danger of an on-air mishap.
While this could be very exciting, it also brings up the question of journalistic integrity. If there isn't a real journalist reporting from the location, does the news network have a right to portray it on television as if there is a reporter there? I think having an avatar report the news would lessen the sense that the people giving the news have a personal stake in it. It could alienate TV news viewers even further. The news could end up looking like a weird movie rather than real life. I wonder, though, if the introduction of some avatars would push TV journalists to work harder at including their viewers in the news.
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