The Nature of Realism Appraisals in Virtual Reality and Television: Protocol for a Systematic Scoping Review

Busselle and Greenberg (2000) conducted a narrative review of the literature on realism judgements in film and television. They reported that there are problems in defining, conceptualising and operationalising realism. With huge changes in both TV and media technology in the last sixteen years, a review of the literature on realism is now necessary. The current protocol outlines the methodology for a scoping review based on Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework and the PRISMA guidelines. The proposed review will focus on the literature on realism appraisals of virtual reality and television. The proposed review then aims to synthesise these under a neurocognitive framework, to address some of the issues in current realism conceptualisations and contribute towards a comprehensive theory of such realism appraisals.