Forget robots and wearable news, consuming the news its on its way to being one big virtual reality game.
That's the hope for Gannett, which is developing a gaming headset that will let users not read, but live, a news story in virtual reality. The headset, called the Oculus Rift, is still in the early stages of creation and most likely won't be released until after 2015.
Watch the video to learn more about the Oculus Rift technology.
But still, the media company expects the technology to change the game of news consumption, calling it a "cutting edge journalistic experience,” that will take the fictional world of gaming and use it to "build factual non-fiction" stories.
“This is the way we, as journalists, are going to need to communicate to the Minecraft generation,” Gannett Digital Vice President of Product Mitch Gelman told Poynter.
For now, the biggest question is if this method would even work at all-- if the population would be open to putting on a headset to get their daily stories, or if turning the world's breaking news into an animated reality is too much for even the most experienced gamers.
Whether or not these trends can actually replace traditional methods of journalism has been a curiosity with much of today's news technology. Wearable news, for example, would require users to have a watch or other device strapped to their bodies at all times. Some people find that pretty unappealing, and others are bothered by the constant sound of notifications and flashing headlines popping up.
The idea of eating the news and wiping with the news is fascinating, but it's hard to believe that those methods would be a sustainable source of everyday news. Robot journalism has made huge strides in the last year as well, with automated programs cranking out full-length stories for news organizations like the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. But even then, robots can only write so much, and the need for human journalists, human editors and human creativity is crucial
(h/t: Jordan Cohen)