Barnes awarded KTA grant for research on visual storytelling

(story courtesy of Kappa Tau Alpha) 

Creating immersive, explanatory storytelling is expensive, but cloud computing can help by allowing creators to take advantage of the power of dozens of computers at one time. 

Spencer Barnes, associate professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, plans to prove that. 

Barnes will receive a $1,000 grant from the Kappa Tau Alpha honor society to pay for cloud rendering to produce two 360-degree video prototypes. The videos, one about dust devils and one about Atlantic blue marlin, later would be used in experimental research on how visualization and 3D animation can help viewers understand complex ideas.

“Dr. Barnes has been working in this field of storytelling impact for a few years,” said Susan King, dean of UNC Hussman. “His research is on the cutting edge of this work.”

Kappa Tau Alpha, the national college honor society for journalism and mass communication, conducts the grant program to provide research assistance to chapter advisers and to recognize their efforts to promote excellence in scholarship.  The society has chapters at 99 universities, and Barnes has served as the adviser of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chapter since 2014. 

In addition to Barnes, KTA adviser Mary Bock, associate professor at the University of Texas, received a KTA research grant this year. Since KTA began the grant program in 2003, the society has awarded 42 grants totaling more than $35,000.