I missed the era of cinematic newsreels by several decades, so I've mostly seen the concept deployed in fiction, where it signals an earlier era when stentorian male voices delivered thinly veiled propaganda to awed, passive audiences. The New York Times' latest experiment with virtual reality â a nine-minute video called The Contender that follows four of our current presidential candidates through their campaign rallies â is not propaganda, nor is it narrated by a man of any voice type. But "VR...
