Finals, Flashbacks & Fighting for Attention 🎓📽️

Hello Storybenchers!

It’s finals week, which means everyone is juggling deadlines, caffeine and the quiet hope that everything somehow holds together. As attention becomes harder to capture — in classrooms, newsrooms and beyond — this week’s newsletter leans into stories about focus, immersion and clarity. 

We’re examining the promise and limits of virtual and augmented reality, tracking major geopolitical developments through powerful interactives, and revisiting a true Storybench classic from 2015, when GIFs were just beginning their rise. 

Consider this a brief pause between deadlines — and a reminder that good storytelling, old or new, still cuts through the noise.

Here is our featured content this week:

🧠📽️Fighting for attention: a reckoning for augmented and virtual reality in immersive media

This Storybench piece explores how immersive technologies — like VR and AR — deepen audience engagement by offering vivid, interactive storytelling experiences. But it also highlights the downside: limited accessibility, niche device requirements, and concerns about whether immersive formats actually help audiences retain complex information. Dive right in!

Cool Stuff Corner: What are we reading?

🎙️🌎 “This is war”: Is Trump about to invade Venezuela? – podcast

The Guardian’s latest podcast episode asks a provocative question: is the U.S. on the brink of invading Venezuela? Amid a military buildup, growing tensions and allegations of narcotics-related violence, the episode explores whether the current situation could escalate into open conflict. Listen here

🛑📰 Hamas Took 251 Hostages From Israel Into Gaza. Where Are They Now?

An interactive from The Washington Post tracks the fate of the 251 people held hostage by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 attack — showing how many have been freed or killed, and how many remain unaccounted for — offering one of the most detailed publicly available displays of the ongoing hostage crisis.4. Read here

From the Vault 🏛️

💡🎞️ How to create a GIF from a video, a screencast, or a bunch of images 

This tutorial from Storybench breaks down how anyone — even without coding experience — can build animated GIFs from images or video. It’s a practical, creative tool for data journalists and storytellers who want to add dynamic visuals to their reporting without relying on advanced software.

🌍🎮Island17: How a college student made a gamified metaverse to explore diversity, equity and inclusion

A deep dive into how a college student created “Island17,” a gamified virtual environment where players navigate scenarios designed to prompt reflection on diversity, equity and inclusion. The project shows how interactive storytelling and game mechanics can foster empathy and awareness around complex social issues.

That's all we've got for this week! Thanks for reading, and let us know if there's anything you'd like to see in these newsletters or in our coverage at [email protected].

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