Redefining Journalism

The Next Social Revolution

By Phylis West Johnson and Tina Korani

I have lived and played and written about the Metaverse in various forms since early 2000. I don’t call myself an expert, but I have journeyed down this road for 20 years. I believe I have a unique perspective – mine, as a woman virtual journalist, scholar, creative artist, and a dreamer. As I have continued to follow its developments, I tired of the masculine framing of the Metaverse. This book will go beyond discussions of cryptocurrenciesto what some might reduce as utopian ideals of community building. However, I envision the Metaverse as offering more than financial gain for the elite for it could potentially help in matters of social justice and equity. I look back to Howard Rheingold’s early writings on The Well, how the internet provided a place for people to share information and to help one another through meaningful connections.

This book will evolve from an on-going discussion with women who are helping to construct the Metaverse as artists, investors and visionaries. We will explore how women are shaping the forthcoming Metaverse with a unique social perspective that promises to revolutionize society and ultimately will influence and impact the future of humanity economically and politically. These women fundamentally differ from how men have continually depicted the Metaverse as a path to wealth. Most women investors are grounded in making change through content creation and social ideation.  These women are joining forces and working to create a female-led Metaverse. Several of these leaders who will be featured have made significant in-roads to establishing museums, art galleries and non-profit organizations in digital environments.  Recently, women’s groups have banded together on International Women’s Day to “BreakTheBias” calling attention to equity gaps across the Metaverse, which is comprised collectively of millions of users. Yet consistently across the Metaverse, there is a lack of female leadership. 

Conversations will be inclusive of all women, across the continuum of race, ethnicity, and gender. It is a story that reflects on the historical role of women involved in the Metaverse, as well as a story that is currently unfolding, and will continue until women conquer the Metaverse, defining its future as a social and empowering form of interpersonal and mass communication. Please follow us in this journey toward the future.

About the Authors:

Phylis West Johnson, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the School of Journalism & Mass Communications at San Jose State University (Silicon Valley). I have authored and/or co-authored/edited several books on media studies.   I am also the virtual reality/arts review editor for the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Among my book projects are Second Life, Media & the Other Society (2010) and Machinima: The Art of Virtual Filmmaking (2012). My more recent book is titled Redefining Journalism (2022). For more information, please see https://futuremediajournalism.wordpress.com/. 

Tina Korani, MFA, co-author, is an assistant professor of new media & design at SJSU who co-founded our School’s Immersive Storytelling Lab with me.  She is joining me in interviewing women creators and developers as well as in our exploration of the Metaverse. She authored two chapters in the book Redefining Journalism (2022) and has been working with emerging technologies for several years.  

Contact information, phylis.west@sjsu.edu, tina.korani@sjsu.edu