Weekly News 7



Mark Zuckerburg ''tours'' flooded Puerto Rico in bizarre virtual reality promo

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/09/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-puerto-rico-virtual-reality
A cartoon Zuckerberg, with Facebook’s head of social virtual reality, Rachel Franklin, on a flooded street. ‘One of the things that’s really magical about VR is you can get the feeling you’re really in a place.’

Key Data/ Statistical Info 
  • A cartoon version of Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, visited hurricane-damaged Puerto Rico on Monday, in a tone-deaf livestream that was part disaster tourism, part product promotion.
  • appeared as avatars within the broadcast from his profile as they “teleported” to different locations using Facebook’s “social VR” tool Spaces.
  • In reality, the two were speaking from the comfort of their offices in the company’s campus in Menlo Park, California, wearing virtual reality headsets.
  • Zuckerberg took the opportunity to talk about some of the ways Facebook was helping with disaster relief, including donating $1.5m and working with the Red Cross to build “population maps” so that relief organizations know where the most help is needed.
The article talks about Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to promote Facebooks new poroduct ''social VR tool spaces'', in the flooded streets of Puerto Rico. In the images we see avatars of Zuckerburg as well as Facebook's head of socila virtual reality, Rachel Franklin, commentating on the devastation that has occurred ''around them'' as well as their opinion on what the virtual reality experience is like. Mark Zuckerbug states that “One of the things that’s really magical about VR is you can get the feeling you’re really in a place,”. 

This links to NDM as it shows how companies use current events to promote new technology- this is a method that attracts audiences as it shows them what it would look like if they are willing to purchase it soon. However, I feel as if the use of Puerto Rico as a location for them to ''teleport'', especially after what has happened recently, is insensitive and unprofessional. The article also mentions that they were also in ''the comfort of their offices'' at the time, which is also quite unsympathetic. However, later on Zuckerburg did state that he donated ''$1.5 million'' and was working with the Red Cross to build ''population maps'' to help relief organisations.  

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