The Journalism 360 Challenge on immersive storytelling is now closed. The challenge received 812 entries. Thank you to everyone who submitted ideas and participated in the meetups and information sessions.

The $250,000 challenge is a collaboration between Knight Foundation, Google News Lab and the Online News Association. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for experimentation with new technologies and methods of storytelling using augmented reality, virtual reality and 360-degree video to test assumptions and build a community of industry leaders to share lessons and insights.

We have assembled a group of experts to help review and evaluate submissions over the next six weeks. In addition to these external reviewers, a group of Journalism 360 Ambassadors will also read applications. As representatives of several industries, the ambassadors will champion the initiative by speaking on panels, writing essays, leading training sessions and serving as a resource for the immersive storytelling community. Here is a list of the ambassadors:

Sarah Hill | StoryUP VR | Journalism 360 co-lead

Mitch Gelman | Newseum | Journalism 360 co-lead

Raney Aronson | “Frontline”/WGBH

Paul Cheung | NBC News Digital

Robert Hernandez | University of Southern California

Marcelle Hopkins | The New York Times

Louis Jebb | Immersiv.ly

Steve Johnson | Boundless

Saleem Khan | JoVRnalism

Jessica Lauretti | RYOT Studio at The Huffington Post

Matthew Mascheri | Dome3D

Dan Pacheco | Newhouse School, Syracuse University

Francesca Panetta | The Guardian

Nonny de la Peña | Emblematic Group

Jenna Pirog | The New York Times

Thomas Seymat | Euronews

Mia Tramz | Time Inc.

We will notify finalists by late May. We will ask them to participate in interviews and provide more information to help us further understand their projects. We will notify winners by June and announce them publicly this summer. Winning ideas, subject to final grant agreements, will receive up to $35,000 for early-stage projects that best answer the question: How might we experiment with immersive storytelling to advance the field of journalism?

Thank you to everyone who applied, participated in our information sessions, and generated excitement around the challenge. We also want to thank everyone who contributed to share insights across the industry and expand the conversation on what it means to experiment in immersive storytelling.

To stay up to date on the challenge, please read the Knight Foundation blog and the Journalism 360 Medium blog. You can also follow Knight, Google News Lab, the Online News Association and Journalism 360 on Twitter. 

If you have any questions about your application or the review process for the Journalism 360 Challenge, please contact us via Twitter or email the Journalism 360 director, Laura Hertzfeld, at [email protected]. 

Nina Zenni is project coordinator for the Journalism 360 Challenge.