Washington State University, in its CUB Auditorium on the Pullman campus, will host today the Virtual Journalism Summit. The Summit is presented by The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, in partnership with the McCormick Foundation, and has for objective to examine the growing popularity of virtual worlds and the influence it has on the profession of virtual journalism.

Strange as it might sound, virtual journalism is a branch that not only exists, but is taken seriously by many important actors in the domain. As its name indicates, it refers to the phenomena of news reporting within a 3D online space. As in the real world, virtual reality has adopted two ways of reporting : blogging, which is more straightforward when put in the context, but also more serious news agency activities. CNN and Sky News have long ago opened their "in-world" bureaus to document and report on the emerging economy and activities within virtual worlds.

The list of participants to the event is surprisingly rich and colourful. It includes :

• Helen Thomas, former White House bureau chief
• Bob Scheiffer, CBS News' chief Washington correspondent
• Philip Rosedale, founder, Second Life
• Lane Merrifield, Executive Vice President, Disney Online Studios
• Lila King, senior producer, CNN Interactive Storytelling
• Erica Driver, co-founder, ThinkBalm
• Wagner James Au, virtual world journalist
• Bernhard Drax, virtual world journalist

The admission is free, and more information about online access can be found here.