Technician Online

January 15th, 2008

My time as a virtual reporter

It’s been almost five years since I first began reporting for the Technician. In all that time, I’ve never covered a story quite like the DELTA team’s creation of the Wolflands in Second Life.

That’s because I’ve never conducted an interview as a virtual reporter.

But that changed last night as I walked (and flew) around N.C. State’s island to meet a few of my sources not as Tyler Dukes, but as my avatar Marconi Darwin.

I was a little nervous to say the least. I’m by no means technology illiterate, but being inexperienced with Second Life, I walked (or teleported) in slightly unsure of how everything would work. I didn’t have a fancy headset, just a pair of headphones and a handheld mic, which I had eagerly connected 20 minutes or so before I was scheduled to meet my contact.

I was waiting on Cris Crissman, an assistant professor in the College of Education, known inside Second Life as 2B Writer. But I found a few other members of the DELTA team I had spoken with previously firsr. They helped me in my struggle to enable my voice chat, and after Crissman showed up, I was ready to conduct my first e-interview.

But everything just felt so awkward. Nothing like the actual fun I have meeting and talking to new people around campus.

That’s not to say that Crissman wasn’t engaging and interesting — she was, in fact. It’s just that being new to Second Life, I wasn’t even sure what the etiquette was for addressing my sources. Should I refer to them as their real names or their names in Second Life?

As it turns out, you should use your avatar name in the game.

I was also unsure of how my “body language” might affect the conversation. That might sound strange since I’m referring to a pixel representation of myself, but I really struggled to make sure I was doing simple things like looking at the people I was talking to. I was even a little embarrassed when my character, in a vain attempt to position himself in a convenient place for conservation, ran into the professor and another avatar before backing off in retreat.

Thankfully, both Crissman and Amanda Robertson, one of DELTA’s multimedia specialists, were understanding enough to help in my some what awkward transition from real reporter to virtual one.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least, even though I really didn’t anticipate be much different before I actually did it.

But luckily for my future sources, I think I’ll stick to reporting in the real world.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 am and is filed under Science & Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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