I’m Dr Karl Hodge, a University Course Director and technology journalist. From 2016 to 2024, I conducted doctoral research into VR journalism and its potential for interactive storytelling. As I transition into a new phase of research, I want to share some of my findings and projects.

First, some background on how I became interested in this stuff.

I studied communication in the 1980s on a degree course heavily influenced by the work of the Birmingham School and its contribution to and expansion of structuralism and semiotics. In 1991, already fascinated by virtual reality and its potential, I completed a Master’s in Communication Design, specialising in interactive multimedia. That work, built on early research into hypertext systems and storytelling, was inspired by Ted Nelson’s Xanadu project. One of the outputs was a HyperCard game with branching story elements.

That same year, Tim Berners-Lee went public with the World Wide Web project at CERN in Geneva. A few months later, in 1992, I built my first web page.

All that early work informed my career as a university lecturer teaching web design and media studies in the early 90s. I then moved into journalism as a technology writer specialising in digital creativity, a job I did for two decades. I published internationally in computer magazines, websites, and broadsheet newspapers, and was sought after as a specialist in communication design and emerging technologies.

After a second Master’s degree—this time in Creative Writing—I returned to academia, lecturing in journalism. I am now the Course Director for undergraduate journalism at Leeds Beckett University, where I’ve led courses and teams and taught since 2011.

My research synthesises this life of journalism with my interest in creative storytelling technologies, virtual reality, design, and narratology.

As I’ve been building websites since the ’90s, I have no reservations or embarrassment in saying this one is currently under construction.

Karl Hodge 2024