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Narrative Transportation And Virtual Reality: Exploring The Immersive Qualities Of Social Justice In The Digital World, Sara Raffel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the potential applications for virtual reality (VR) stories in support of social justice causes, examining whether digital games historically been successfully leveraged for social justice purposes, and determining which components of VR technology can most encourage narrative transportation of participants in VR stories. The first chapter examines theories of simulation, virtual reality, narrative, and interactivity, as well as concepts of immersion from various disciplines and settles on narrative transportation, a theory from cognitive psychology, as the most useful in measuring the effect of VR stories on participants. The second chapter examines ethnographic practices, activist games, and modes …