Introduction & Executive Summary: Issue 3
Katerina Girginova, Katie Rawson, Maxwell Foxman, Jeffrey Vadala, Kyle Cassidy, Feng Yi Chew, Shane Burrell Jr.
Welcome to the third issue of the Social Grammars of Virtuality! This is a yearly report that tracks and critically analyzes developments in extended reality (XR) research[1]. In this issue you will find a knowledge mapping of all of the available, 2024 peer-reviewed XR publications in English – that covers nearly 11,000 papers. The knowledge mapping section of the report examines the geographies of knowledge production, publication outlets, institutions and funding, and it provides a high-level summary of research trends, with a specific focus on the social sciences. This is followed by the 4 regular sections that provide a deeper dive into the theories, technologies, methodologies, and language used in XR research across several core journals. The report also includes an overview of commercial XR developments in 2024 and this year, we have a new, special section dedicated to XR dissertations, which are often at the forefront of knowledge creation.
Key Findings:
- Augmented reality (AR) continues to see significant growth in research, although the number of publications devoted to AR still do not mirror its predominant place in commercial XR use. Artificial intelligence, too, made a notable appearance in this year’s publications, but its framing and uses vary widely.
- XR research is simultaneously becoming 1) more specialized to several core contexts like education, training and healthcare, and 2) more diverse in the topics and target users it pursues within these few prevalent contexts.
- XR research, including peer-reviewed publications and dissertations, remains largely applied, emphasizing usability, adoptability and learning over theorization and fundamental questions about the creation and uses of XR.
Recommendations for XR Researchers and Practitioners:
- Virtual production is a fast-emerging area of practice and research but, according to industry leaders, the supply of professionals is lagging behind the demand. One reason is a lack of a common language to describe and train talent for the necessary synergy of production skills. Developing this common language and set of practices is key.
- There is an increasing diversity of XR platforms, analysis software, and content. Researchers should consider these new advances, that can allow for greater customization and efficiency in content creation, when pursuing XR research.
- XR research is lacking in longitudinal work and would benefit from such studies to more comprehensively understand uses and perceptions.
The Social Grammars report remains a free, quality resource to the academic and practitioner community and is available in English and Spanish. We hope this report presents a step toward brining critical communication and, broadly speaking, social science voices to the fore of XR conversations in society – and to do so in an accessible way. We view our work as a conversation with the global XR community. We hope that you enjoy reading it and that you get in touch to continue the conversation.
Author Biographies
Dr. Katerina Girginova is Co-Editor of the Social Grammars of Virtuality and Co-Founder/Director of the Annenberg Extended Reality (AER) Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. She writes about global media and audiences with a specific interesti in the immersive media industry. Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania, Katerina worked in a number of media organizations and enjoys combining creative and critical perspectives in media production.
Dr. Katie Rawson is Co-Editor of the Social Grammars of Virtuality and Director of the Library and Co-Director of Media and IT at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. She has published on data curation, archives, academic collaboration, computational methods, and food culture. Whether studying data models or short-order cooks, her research focuses on ways of knowing.
Dr. Maxwell Foxman is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Game Studies at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. His research focuses on how games and play impact non-game media and affiliated industries, including journalism, e-sports, and XR. Foxman is the co-author of Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Press) with David B. Nieborg. His research has appeared in New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, and Digital Journalism, among other outlets.
Dr. Jeffrey Vadala is a researcher in the field of neuroaesthetics and anthropology, focusing on how architecture shapes human experience and cognition. Through the use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and artificial intelligence (AI), he studies how humans create and experience space and place. As the director of the Penn Neurology VR Laboratory, Dr. Vadala teaches and leads projects that integrate VR, AR, and AI to study how humans perceive and respond to di!erent architectural environments.
Kyle Cassidy is Co-Founder/Director of the Annenberg Extended Reality (AER) Lab at the University of Pennsylvania and has been writing about technology since the early 1990’s. He has authored a number of books about computer science and has been a contributing editor to Videomaker Magazine for two decades. He’s won four Keystone Journalism Awards and in 2020 he won the University of Pennsylvania’s Model of Excellence award for his work in virtual reality.
Feng Yi Chew is a PhD student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She studies the mechanisms behind values, attitudes, and behaviors, and how these shape responses to persuasive communications, especially in the realm of health. With a background in government strategy and infectious disease policy, she brings an applied perspective to questions of science communication, technology adoption, and public trust. She is also interested in how extended reality technologies might be harnessed to support equitable, evidence-based health interventions and deepen public engagement with science.
Shane Burrell Jr. is a PhD student in Game Studies at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon. Shane’s research is on the relationship users of virtual reality have with their virtual characters. Shane investigates this through the critical and post- positivist lens, using mixed methods and grounded approaches. Shane’s research focuses on the uses of innovative technologies and media while examining this through the media psychology paradigm.
We specifically track the following: augmented, mixed and virtual reality. ↑