[Music]
it’s a strange time to be working in
journalism when many Americans including
the president and his proxies talk about
the media as if reporting the news were
a threat to the Republic routinely
labeling the results of rigorous
investigations as fake news
America’s founders whether you agree
with them or not
plays journalism on the same level as
the ministry or priesthood they
protected both a free press and the
freedom of religion right there first
thing in our constitution if that lends
us sense of sanctity to the work of the
Free Press well that also means that
nothing is sacred because in journalism
everything is fair game for
investigations I used to have an editor
who would say sacred cows they make for
great hamburger to deliver on the
responsibility that comes with that
freedom the force of state needs
journalists to be accurate credible and
most importantly ethical as a professor
of journalism I trained my students to
live up to those expectations to give
voice to the voiceless to comfort the
afflicted and to afflict the comfortable
our reporting our storytelling should
try to offer you something try to teach
you something offer you an insight even
if that’s something challenges your
existing beliefs but it’s not easy the
internet and all things digital brought
a wave of disruptions that essentially
challenges nearly every aspect of what
we do but with that wave of disruptions
have come new opportunities in new story
forms so my additional goal as a
professor of
digital journalism is to empower my
students to inform their communities
through noon emerging technologies by
paper by pixels broadcast or broadband
journalism needs to remain relevant and
how it reaches and informs the diverse
communities it aims to serve accurately
informing by any ethical means necessary
by that I mean using a variety of
different technologies like snapchat or
Instagram storix hell let’s use
minecraft in Pokemon go if we can inform
our communities that way that’s my
specialty I hijacked emerging
technologies from other fields and apply
them to journalism think coding mobile
drones I’m a reluctant drone owner
wearable sensors they are vrm are those
last acronyms they’ve been the focus of
my work for the last few years exploring
immersive storytelling VR or virtual
reality is the one that most people know
but they tend to know virtual reality
because well it’s been over promised and
over hyped for decades continually under
delivering and only offering bad
products and more experiences but
recently virtual reality has become a
legitimate reality this technology is
here now and there are great experiences
including immersive journalism pieces
done by pioneers using this technology
these stories help us understand the
perspective help us closer understand
what it’s like to be a child in a
refugee camp or how someone is adjusting
to life after solitary confinement or
Buzz Aldrin’s dream of humanity
exploring Mars my students were standing
on the shoulders of these pioneers as we
too produced these immersive stories
like recreating a 30-foot storms
that scientists predict could wipe out
the Houston Ship Channel or a recent
project about California’s largest lake
the Salton Sea which is dying in quickly
turning into one of the state’s largest
environmental disasters we create these
stories under the name Severna listen
see what we did there a stupid type I
was turned into our cute name and we
trademarked it there’s so much
fascinating research around virtual
reality and immersive technologies how
our brains accept this how you can
literally be put into other people’s
shoes their skin their gender talk about
different perspectives
there are studies about how our brain
believes this immersive world it doesn’t
care whether or not we’ve crossed the
uncanny valley it just knows we’ve left
this reality and have immersed it into
another a recent Google News lab study
found that we could be shifting from
storytelling to story living where we
feel and experience these immersive
stories holistically but of all the
studies that are out there my favorite
is the rubber arm test here the
researchers have you sit at a table and
they block your arm from view with you
piece of cardboard and they place a fake
arm in front of you it looks ridiculous
you know it’s fake they tell you it’s
fake and then they begin to touch your
real arm and your fake arm at the same
time
and nearly instantaneously your brain
adopts that limb and to prove that point
the researchers well
the researchers take a stab of your
newly adopted toothbrush the researchers
take a stab at your newly adopted living
you naturally pull away the alarming
fact is we can be persuaded by what we
see even though we know it’s fake you
may have seen this video it made some
news it’s been less than a week since
the deadliest mass shooting in American
history and foremost in all of our minds
has been the loss and the grief felt by
the people of Orlando but this video
it didn’t make news because of the
tragic shooting it made news because
this video doesn’t exist this video is
fabricated technologists and researchers
from the University of Washington had
developed a technology a lip syncing
technology that can take audio and
essentially fabricate video on the left
here is the real video on the right is
the fake especially our friends who were
lesbian gay bisexual or transgender I
visited with the families of many of the
victims on Thursday the one on the right
is fake I showed this to my students and
their jaws dropped too and in our
discussions about this technology I said
well at least as long as I don’t say
anything foolish on tape or there isn’t
technology that can fabricate me saying
something we’re kind of safe right Oh
professor you don’t know the student
pulled up this video on YouTube
it’s from Adobe MAX 2016 were Princeton
researchers we’re demoing their new
technology called hash tag voco using
the audio from actor director Jordan
Peele who was on stage they demoed how
the tech works they used audio from him
describing what he did in the morning
when he found out he was nominated I
jumped out of the bed and
and I kiss my dogs and my wife in that
order he kissed his dogs and his wife
with this technology in a matter of
keystrokes not editing the sound wave
but just editing and typing out words
they made him a better husband and I
kiss my wife and my dogs I kissed my
wife and my dogs and then they demoed
what this technology could do they first
made him a less good husband by changing
my wife to his name Jordan and everyone
freaked out what got my attention is
what happened next
this technology which is essentially the
Photoshop for audio after it analyzes
your your sound your voice can fabricate
words or phrases you didn’t say to prove
that point they added the phrase three
times and I kiss Jordan three times I
kiss Jordan three times he went from a
good husband
to an ex-husband we live in the future I
want you to take a moment to acknowledge
how difficult it is to distinguish what
is real in this mind-boggling future
right now misinformation is being
deployed even weaponized for profit for
power or simply to troll Silicon
Valley’s ethicists Tristen Harris talks
about getting your attention is like a
race to the bottom of your brain set
it’s a stern reminder that outrage
fueled by your brain’s negativity bias
is persuasion and propaganda
most potent ingredients fake news or the
accusations of fake news is attempting
to drown out accurate and ethically
reported information take a moment to
think about what’s going to happen when
this technology goes mainstream and
people try to use it a bit not
not if but when people use it for
misinformation it could be a lot more
dangerous than just a rubber arm
immersive storytelling immersive
technologies are the next disruption
that’s why I urge my students and I
implore my industry to become leaders
not only in developing new immersive
storytelling techniques but also to
apply journalism’s traditional code of
ethics to help shape and frame this
emerging platform because if this
disruption is like any before it it’s
not going to stop we’re not going back
this next wave can change the world as
we know it
we need ethical storytellers we need
credible journalists we need a Fourth
Estate that we can trust and believe is
fighting for us and we need you de facto
reporters posting news and information
on worldwide social platforms we need
you to become more critical media
consumers because if you can be fooled
by a fake Facebook post where you gonna
have to be a lot smarter not to be
fooled by an immersive story it can
sound kind of scary but I have to admit
to you it’s also really exciting my
students and I were excited at this
opportunity to help develop the first
drafts of immersive journalism and to
help shape this future these students
are working hard because we believe like
America’s founders believe that a free
press that we can trust is essential to
a democratic society accurately
informing by any ethical means necessary
thank you
you
[Applause]
it’s a strange time to be working in
journalism when many Americans including
the president and his proxies talk about
the media as if reporting the news were
a threat to the Republic routinely
labeling the results of rigorous
investigations as fake news
America’s founders whether you agree
with them or not
plays journalism on the same level as
the ministry or priesthood they
protected both a free press and the
freedom of religion right there first
thing in our constitution if that lends
us sense of sanctity to the work of the
Free Press well that also means that
nothing is sacred because in journalism
everything is fair game for
investigations I used to have an editor
who would say sacred cows they make for
great hamburger to deliver on the
responsibility that comes with that
freedom the force of state needs
journalists to be accurate credible and
most importantly ethical as a professor
of journalism I trained my students to
live up to those expectations to give
voice to the voiceless to comfort the
afflicted and to afflict the comfortable
our reporting our storytelling should
try to offer you something try to teach
you something offer you an insight even
if that’s something challenges your
existing beliefs but it’s not easy the
internet and all things digital brought
a wave of disruptions that essentially
challenges nearly every aspect of what
we do but with that wave of disruptions
have come new opportunities in new story
forms so my additional goal as a
professor of
digital journalism is to empower my
students to inform their communities
through noon emerging technologies by
paper by pixels broadcast or broadband
journalism needs to remain relevant and
how it reaches and informs the diverse
communities it aims to serve accurately
informing by any ethical means necessary
by that I mean using a variety of
different technologies like snapchat or
Instagram storix hell let’s use
minecraft in Pokemon go if we can inform
our communities that way that’s my
specialty I hijacked emerging
technologies from other fields and apply
them to journalism think coding mobile
drones I’m a reluctant drone owner
wearable sensors they are vrm are those
last acronyms they’ve been the focus of
my work for the last few years exploring
immersive storytelling VR or virtual
reality is the one that most people know
but they tend to know virtual reality
because well it’s been over promised and
over hyped for decades continually under
delivering and only offering bad
products and more experiences but
recently virtual reality has become a
legitimate reality this technology is
here now and there are great experiences
including immersive journalism pieces
done by pioneers using this technology
these stories help us understand the
perspective help us closer understand
what it’s like to be a child in a
refugee camp or how someone is adjusting
to life after solitary confinement or
Buzz Aldrin’s dream of humanity
exploring Mars my students were standing
on the shoulders of these pioneers as we
too produced these immersive stories
like recreating a 30-foot storms
that scientists predict could wipe out
the Houston Ship Channel or a recent
project about California’s largest lake
the Salton Sea which is dying in quickly
turning into one of the state’s largest
environmental disasters we create these
stories under the name Severna listen
see what we did there a stupid type I
was turned into our cute name and we
trademarked it there’s so much
fascinating research around virtual
reality and immersive technologies how
our brains accept this how you can
literally be put into other people’s
shoes their skin their gender talk about
different perspectives
there are studies about how our brain
believes this immersive world it doesn’t
care whether or not we’ve crossed the
uncanny valley it just knows we’ve left
this reality and have immersed it into
another a recent Google News lab study
found that we could be shifting from
storytelling to story living where we
feel and experience these immersive
stories holistically but of all the
studies that are out there my favorite
is the rubber arm test here the
researchers have you sit at a table and
they block your arm from view with you
piece of cardboard and they place a fake
arm in front of you it looks ridiculous
you know it’s fake they tell you it’s
fake and then they begin to touch your
real arm and your fake arm at the same
time
and nearly instantaneously your brain
adopts that limb and to prove that point
the researchers well
the researchers take a stab of your
newly adopted toothbrush the researchers
take a stab at your newly adopted living
you naturally pull away the alarming
fact is we can be persuaded by what we
see even though we know it’s fake you
may have seen this video it made some
news it’s been less than a week since
the deadliest mass shooting in American
history and foremost in all of our minds
has been the loss and the grief felt by
the people of Orlando but this video
it didn’t make news because of the
tragic shooting it made news because
this video doesn’t exist this video is
fabricated technologists and researchers
from the University of Washington had
developed a technology a lip syncing
technology that can take audio and
essentially fabricate video on the left
here is the real video on the right is
the fake especially our friends who were
lesbian gay bisexual or transgender I
visited with the families of many of the
victims on Thursday the one on the right
is fake I showed this to my students and
their jaws dropped too and in our
discussions about this technology I said
well at least as long as I don’t say
anything foolish on tape or there isn’t
technology that can fabricate me saying
something we’re kind of safe right Oh
professor you don’t know the student
pulled up this video on YouTube
it’s from Adobe MAX 2016 were Princeton
researchers we’re demoing their new
technology called hash tag voco using
the audio from actor director Jordan
Peele who was on stage they demoed how
the tech works they used audio from him
describing what he did in the morning
when he found out he was nominated I
jumped out of the bed and
and I kiss my dogs and my wife in that
order he kissed his dogs and his wife
with this technology in a matter of
keystrokes not editing the sound wave
but just editing and typing out words
they made him a better husband and I
kiss my wife and my dogs I kissed my
wife and my dogs and then they demoed
what this technology could do they first
made him a less good husband by changing
my wife to his name Jordan and everyone
freaked out what got my attention is
what happened next
this technology which is essentially the
Photoshop for audio after it analyzes
your your sound your voice can fabricate
words or phrases you didn’t say to prove
that point they added the phrase three
times and I kiss Jordan three times I
kiss Jordan three times he went from a
good husband
to an ex-husband we live in the future I
want you to take a moment to acknowledge
how difficult it is to distinguish what
is real in this mind-boggling future
right now misinformation is being
deployed even weaponized for profit for
power or simply to troll Silicon
Valley’s ethicists Tristen Harris talks
about getting your attention is like a
race to the bottom of your brain set
it’s a stern reminder that outrage
fueled by your brain’s negativity bias
is persuasion and propaganda
most potent ingredients fake news or the
accusations of fake news is attempting
to drown out accurate and ethically
reported information take a moment to
think about what’s going to happen when
this technology goes mainstream and
people try to use it a bit not
not if but when people use it for
misinformation it could be a lot more
dangerous than just a rubber arm
immersive storytelling immersive
technologies are the next disruption
that’s why I urge my students and I
implore my industry to become leaders
not only in developing new immersive
storytelling techniques but also to
apply journalism’s traditional code of
ethics to help shape and frame this
emerging platform because if this
disruption is like any before it it’s
not going to stop we’re not going back
this next wave can change the world as
we know it
we need ethical storytellers we need
credible journalists we need a Fourth
Estate that we can trust and believe is
fighting for us and we need you de facto
reporters posting news and information
on worldwide social platforms we need
you to become more critical media
consumers because if you can be fooled
by a fake Facebook post where you gonna
have to be a lot smarter not to be
fooled by an immersive story it can
sound kind of scary but I have to admit
to you it’s also really exciting my
students and I were excited at this
opportunity to help develop the first
drafts of immersive journalism and to
help shape this future these students
are working hard because we believe like
America’s founders believe that a free
press that we can trust is essential to
a democratic society accurately
informing by any ethical means necessary
thank you
you
[Applause]
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