Agency and Storytelling

Luciane Maria Fadel1, Dra.

Nicole Pasini Trevisol2, MsC.

1. Introduction
Manovich’s variability principle, which states that information can be transformed, updated or
interconnect with other information, determines that digital artifact is susceptible of multiple
versions, i.e., being in constant changes due to adjustments. This same principle supports that
changes in media technology are related to social change. This new society searches in new media
for an individualized identification that brings the possibility of exclusive choices and paths. Thus,
media is perceived as personalized and the user as unique interactor, which creates an utopic feeling
of an ideal society made of unique individuals (McLuhan, 1964).
This utopic feeling is also discussed by Mcluhan using Beckett’s theatre of the absurd. Beckett uses
clown-like characters which means that they pretend to be in control but are marginal creatures.
Likewise, in many new media artifacts the interactor can only choose among predetermined
options. Thus, variability is perceived by choosing one of the options available. Even though,
mastering choice (Eichner, 2014) is enough to perceive agency. Agency may be understood as the
perception of being responsible for significant actions and realize the results of these actions
(Murray, Afordances of the medium, 2011).
With the emergence of new media, the media have sought to incorporate different ways to
disseminate the information. One of them has been the immersive journalism that started in 2015
and incorporated virtual reality. The aim of this kind of journalism is to be close to the reader and
provide a fair and immersive reporting on the news. In addition, immersive journalism seeks to
narrate the life of people through their own point of view. The plot is as real as possible. Life is the
inspiration and the portrait. To bring the impression of reality in which the reader can immerse, the
film uses a 360o capture camera developed by Avery Holton of Utah University (Rabello, 2016).

2. The artifact
This paper investigates The Displaced, a virtual reality film produced by Ben C. Solomon and
Imraan Ismail of The New York Times Magazine. This film documents one day in the life of three
children displaced from their homes because of the war or persecution. These refugees are: an 11
years old Ukrainian boy called Oleg; an 12 years old girl from Syria called Hana; and Chuol a 9
years old boy from South Sudan.
 Figure 1 – Screen shot of the first frame of The Displaced
The release of this documentary follows a marketing strategy held by the newspaper: 1 million of
virtual reality goggles were sent to the readers, in October 2015. The film is 11’16” long and was
filmed in 360o which can be seen at https://www.nytimes.com/video/magazine/100000005005806/the-
displaced.html?mcubz=0.
The first shot shows a boy in a classroom, which is totally destroyed (see Figure 1). He draws in the
remains of a blackboard. At the bottom left corner one can read “Click and drag your mouse to
explore”. This invitation leads the viewer to become an interactor, as defined by Murray (1998) “the
interactor is scripted by the environment as well as act upon it”.
The boy is Oleg and he is visiting his school destroyed by war. The film then shows Chuol as he
takes his wood canoe on the swamp. A short text contextualizes the story: “Nearly 60 million people
around the world have been driven from their homes by war and persecution – more than at any
time since World War II. Half are children. This is the story of three of them”. The film them
presents Hana. Hana leaves the frame as she walks to the right. To follow her the interactor needs to
move the camera to the right too. From this point on the interactor knows that depends on his/her
choice to see what the characters see, to look at the character or to look away.
After the title “The Displaced” the viewer is taken back to the classroom. Depending where the
camera was standing in the previous scene Oleg might be out of the view. The text that appears in
perspective leads the interactor to turn the camera to read it better. Turning the camera also reviews
Oleg that stands still in the middle of the room. Next scene shows Oleg and his friends running on
the top of destroyed houses. Every time a boy runs off the scene it invites the interactor to follow
him.
Back to the canoe that runs smoothly the camera can also point to the opposite direction of the main
character. The interactor tries to find the boy who is paddling alone in the swamp. The text gives the
sign that the camera can be turned.
Following Hana, early on the morning, the camera is set on the truck with Hana’s family. They all
work on a harvest of vegetables. Next scene is in South Sudan, where many people are waiting for
something. Turning the camera the interactor can see who is shouting on a megaphone. Few phrases
help to understand the scenario. The text explain that people are waiting for food, which will be
drop off planes. When the planes can be heard the interactor tries to find them in the sky. The planes
thrown many bags of food, which are collected by those men and women.
Next shots show a bit of the displaced lives of Oleg, Hana and Chuol.
The film ends after each one of the kids presents themselves. They say their age and their names.
The last one, Hana, turns away from camera and starts to walk towards the vast empty field.

3. Agency
Murray (1998, p. 156) defines agency as “the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the
result of our decisions and choices”. This means that agency is not about the number of actions, but
about the meaning that action rises. For example, a chess game has few movements (actions) but a
high degree of agency because these movements are selected from a huge amount of possibilities
and each of which determines the course of the game. Thus, agency is commonly observed in
games, but not restricted to it as Eichner (2014) argues. Eichner states that agency is a way to
experience media, and more specifically agency is a mode of second-order involvement with media
induced by textual strategies. Thus, agency may be conceived as operating in 3 levels: personal,
collective and creative. The fundamental level of agency is the personal, which can be understood
through different textual strategies as: mastering narrative, mastering choice, mastering action and
mastering space. It is considered that the text recognition and its patterns of features, and the
interpretation of the text with its polysemy according to readers’ knowledge, is the most basic form
of involvement with the text, or the first-order involvement.
Mastering narrative belongs to second-order involvement and happens when the default resources
calls for participation of the reader which recognizes the textual structure that forms the narrative.
For Eichner agency relies on genre conventions, as film genre, or in conscious provocations of the
audience expectations with complex narratives. Therefore, agency explores the space of free
movements of the user in a rigid structure (Zimmerman, 2004). Mastering choice happens when the
users perceive that their choices had influence and made a difference in the final result of the
narrative.
Mastering action is directly related to the control of the action of the character, that is, making the
character (or any controllable element) walk, jump, etc. This implies that mastering action depends
on the flow perceived by users (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Finally, mastering space, as discussed by Murray (1998) and Manovich (2002), revels itself when
users explore the narrative space and navigate oriented by the structural pattern.

4. Methodology
The close reading method (Van Looy & Baetans, 2003) was applied to investigate how the
participation of the viewer is used to build knowledge on New York Times’ The Displaced web site.
The artifact was read thoroughly by experimenting it many time exploring different paths, going
forward and backward and carefully matching the narrative with the form of the interface and
choices available (Fontanille, 1993). Thus, the first step was to observe facts and details about the
artifact. So, the film was watched three times but no notes were taken. In the subsequent visits, each
sequence of frames that contains text was deconstructed in terms of narrative content, sound track,
form, camera position, and possible path.
Screen shots of the frames were saved and analyzed in terms of agency in the 10 points of contact,
which were detected in the film The Displaced. These points of contacts call for an action or choice
of the viewer. For example, to be able to read the text it is necessary to move the camera using the
mouse (website) or moving the head (virtual reality).
The finding of this deconstruction is analyzed in the next section.
5. Close reading The Displaced
The first point of contact occurs at 1’52” when the character runs away from the camera and it is
necessary to move the camera to the left so one can read the text “Last year, the war came to my
village” (see Figure 2).
At first, this camera movement can be seen as a provocation to experience virtual reality
technology, which requires commitment and participation. This call for participation provides
means to build knowledge about the characters and their stories while the viewer takes ownership of
the new technology as a place of immersion.

Figure 2 -

Figure 3 - Screen shot at 1'52" at

https://www.nytimes.com/video/magazine/100000005005806/the-displaced.html?mcubz=0

Mcluhan (1964) calls it inclusive image, which gives the viewer the impression of existence
because other people are taking or seeing a specific subject, i.e., the viewer believes in the existence
of the world from the experience of the other. Therefore, this media can be an extension for society
to endure in the world because without an audience their stories would remain an illusion, a fiction,
and a movie. It is through the journalistic narrative created by means of virtual reality, and the
choice of moving camera that the viewers take their place in the world and build their knowledge
freely. Agency evolves as the interactor moves the camera in the direction of action. This first point
of contact also evokes the feeling of wonder about this exhibitionist cinema that uses a new
technology as happened in the cinema of attraction (Gunning, 1990). After the initial novel period
this wonder continues and the interactor will perceive agency by mastering choice. Every time the
interactors move their camera they feel that the result is due to their choices. They become the
witness of characters life, and so they can appropriate their stories, their point of views. The
interactor becomes the character.
One of the most visual and auditory experiences happens at 4’58” when Chuol tells his story. The
scene shows many people in a field at South Sudan. A man shouts at them using a megaphone.
Chuol explains that they are waiting for the planes that will drop food so they can eat. At this
moment the viewer has to face the result of war: starvation. If the camera is facing the opposite
direction of the planes, viewers can experience desperation because they will miss the planes
dropping the bags. There is a moment of anguish to move the mouse to the right direction and a
moment of hope when the planes are found and the food are falling from the sky.
Mastering space also supports agency every time the film changes to a different narrative. Plot is
designed to follow the three children almost at same time. To do that, every shot is about one of the
characters. The film starts with Oleg in Ukraine and after 30 seconds it presents Chuol in South
Sudan and at 1’it presents Hana in Syria. After this brief presentation, children’s lives will be briefly
portrayed in short shots of 1’- 1’20 each. The sequence is:
Presentation (30”): Oleg, Chuol Hana
First round (1’): Oleg, Chuol, Hana
Second round (1’): Chuol, Oleg, Hana
Closing (30”): Chuol, Oleg, Hana
Fairwell (10”): Oleg, Chuol, Hana
Manovich (2002) states that technology changes because society changes. Thus, virtual reality is
used as a tool that allows society to identify itself with those stories by choosing what to see and
constructing their own perceptions about the world being presented as a digital media.
The documentary can also be understood as a cool media (McLuhan, 1964) because it gives the
viewer the possibility of getting involved and discover different points of view.
A cool media for Mcluhan serves to unify eras and ages because requires to think critically about
the information being presented, it is strategic, complex and intellectual. In this case, this cool
storytelling creates value to society because it portraits different lives in different parts of the world.
When the viewers accept the role of an interactor and choose what to see they immerse in the
characters’ world and they become the characters. This immediacy can contribute to the
deconstruction of everything the viewers understood as an ideal world even if reality is perceived
by just a moment.
Therefore this immersive journalism through virtual reality can portrait a different form of
construction and deconstruction of narratives and disseminate information. As Rabello (2016)
claims, this kind of journalism seeks for a fair and immersive report. In addition, Lazamora and
Tárcia argue that immersive journalism provides an experience to the viewers as protagonists of the
story been told.

6. Conclusion
This paper argues that interactive and immersive spaces in online journalism are a form of
enhancing storytelling that enables the viewer the opportunity to build knowledge and develop a
critical thinking on social events. Every time the viewers are asked to take part on the storytelling
they become part of the story not as authors as Murray (1998) would argue but as interactors. As
interactors they can perceive agency because they are expected to choose what they want to see.
Although the interaction is based on very simple actions, as moving the camera, the 360o of this
camera becomes a portal to an immersive experience.
Thus, as Eco (1992) explains the open work is molded by viewer’s choice and action. This active
participation is not based on the quality of the media as described by Mcluhan, but by becoming
witness of the story. The point of view of the user needs can match the character’s point of view or
the viewer can just turn to the other side and ignore the story. The profound emotions that are
portrait provoke the viewer to look at the character as he is there, filming, being a witness.
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