On 14 October 2022, the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences of the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca will hold the public defense of the PhD thesis entitled Immersive Journalism and 360-degree videos. An Experimental Approach and the Perspective of the Experts by Christof Amrhein from the University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Germany.  The thesis is innovative in the sense that it examines the effects of 360-degree videos on users watching with head-mounted-devices (HMD). The thesis is a contribution to research on the effects of virtual reality and is based on an experiment conducted under laboratory conditions which, in addition to data collected by means of questionnaires (one applied immediately after media reception and the second four weeks after), includes data on field of view (head movement). Beside modality (desktop vs. HDM), the complexity of the narrative (directional agency) was considered as experimental factor. In addition to the experiment, the PhD student interviews nine experts from academia, media productions, and authors from Germany and Austria on the use of virtual reality in journalism. Research results indicate effects of VR media on memory, emotions and user behavior. In addition, based on the data analysis, the author recommends communicating environmental protection topics through VR media formats as this can contribute to pro environmental attitudes.