This thesis examines the potential of audio augmented reality (AAR) for journalistic narratives. As
smartphones are widespread and headphones with integrated sensors are becoming increasingly common, a
growing number of people have access to devices that could support AAR applications. Drawing on immersive
journalism, a visually dominated field that uses virtual and augmented reality to create first-person experiences
of journalistic subjects, this thesis asks how journalism and AAR can be connected.
To address this question, the thesis maps related fields of research, including immersive journalism, spatial
audio journalism, AAR, immersion, and AAR-specific narrative strategies. Based on this theoretical
background, it develops an analytical framework that is applied to three case studies that include the exhibition
Sounds of Silence and the audio walks Only Expansion and Consent – Walk the Walk. These examples represent
different approaches to AAR and allow a comparison of the technical implementation, narrative design,
immersive potential, envisioned roles for AAR applications from the participants’ perspective, and journalistic
relevance.
The analysis concludes that the potential of AAR for journalistic narratives depends on the relation between
the technical system and the subject of the work as the technology must support the intended form of
knowledge transfer and narrative engagement. The case studies further show that immersion in this field of
application should be understood as a perceptual and psychological state shaped by narrative components.
Finally, the thesis argues that AAR requires a high degree of transparency in journalistic contexts. Because
spatialized, locative, and interactive audio can make mediated content feel immediate and personally
experienced, sources, reconstructions, work processes, and design decisions need to be communicated clearly.