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Nonny de la Peña had this to say about Professor Pacheco after her acceptance of an I-3 Mirror Award. "Once the [Oculus] Facebook sale happened, $2 billion dollars, you're not so nuts. But before that happened, a lot of people thought trying to do journalism in virtual reality was crazy. But there's somebody in this room who didn't. And this is really important about why innovation is crucial in journalism schools. Not only did that Hunger project start at the USC school of journalism, but a really important person here put on the goggles -- we both had been Knight Grant winners earlier -- Dan Pacheco. And he said, 'Holy shit, there's something real here.' And he invited me up to S.I. Newhouse. At that point I'm carrying 22 motion tracking cameras, huge tripods, crazy equipment, I show up with the flu and 103 degree fever. Something had broken in transport and Dan and I worked until midnight until finally one person in the lab instructed me, and I managed to fix it with a paper clip. And then the next day, Syracuse students were introduced to virtual reality. But something else happened. Dan went on to work at Gannett. He then got them interested in virtual reality. And then Gannett and USA Today began their thrust. Because of Dan's interests, S.I. Newhouse became the very first school to offer an immersive journalism class. And because of Dan's support of this medium, a lot more … many many many new minds were opened to using VR for journalism. So really in many ways, the fact that I'm here is down to having somebody like Dan Pacheco be one of the very first people in my entire trajectory to say to me, hang on, there's something real here. So, you know, I really have to thank him, and I have to thank S.I. Newhouse because I don't know if I would have had the type of trajectory I have without what happened at your school. So thank you so, so much."

Columbia Journalism Review just listed the "Harvest of Change" virtual reality journalism project that Professor Pacheco co-produced at Gannett as one of 11 noteworthy journalism experiments today. BDJ senior, now graduated, also contributed as a developer.

Video of Dan Pacheco's panel on VR and 360 video for journalism at the 2017 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.

"Dan Pacheco, professor of journalism innovation at the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University, served as a consultant with Gannett Digital and the Des Moines Register on Harvest of Change. He describes team-building as part two of a "three act" process. (Act one: Find the story and conduct preliminary research.) Pacheco hired a game designer to handle 3D rendering who enjoyed the experience so much that "he got the journalism bug" and stayed with Gannett. They also brought in a second intern who had experience with Unity, a multiplatform gaming engine. The team was rounded out with Total Cinema 360, a New York-based film company."

Prof. Pacheco was interviewed by CBS Interactive's TechRepublic about using virtuality for journalism in the story: "Immersive journalism: What virtual reality means for the future of storytelling and empathy-casting." The piece also referenced Pacheco's Virtual Reality Storytelling course and included a link to a 360 video of the SU football team by class member and football player Eric Jackson.

How will journalists use Google Glass? @pachecod and other explorers share ideas with American Journalism Review.

How will journalists use Google Glass? @pachecod and other explorers share ideas with American Journalism Review.

Newhouse currently teaches interactive data visualization, product management for journalists, and new technologies for new media as part of the pack, said chair in journalism innovation Dan Pacheco.

"Dan Pacheco, the journalism innovation chair at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, came on board this summer as Gannett Digital's innovator in residence to work on the project. There is huge potential for virtual reality experiences even outside journalism, he says. "When the next great Lexus car comes out or some kind of hybrid or even Tesla, these brands can begin to stop telling people about how cool their cars are. They're going to say, 'Jump inside. Take it for a virtual test drive.' People will do that," Pacheco said."

"Immersive journalism is picking up now in part because the necessary technology has gotten better, cheaper, and more portable. The smartphone's ability to stream high-definition video as well as its increasing popularity-58% of Americans had one as of January 2014, according to Pew Research-have further accelerated adoption. Add to that the more widespread use of interactive data visualizations and advances in wearable computing and the stage may be set for a more robust adoption of virtual reality. "It's not just the media coming to you," says Dan Pacheco, professor of journalism innovation at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. "You move into the media.""

'For a couple of days in journalism circles, "Harvest of Change" was the hot trending topic. Never before had you been able to virtually step inside a story and be enveloped by 360-degree video and hyper-realistic 3D renderings of a landscape you could move inside of. And while the full effect was achieved through the Oculus headset, there were also 2D versions made for desktop computers, which let more people experience the story. You can find it at desmoinesregister.com/pages/interactives/harvest-of-change. The seeds of this "harvest" were planted when Dan Pacheco, chair of journalism innovation at the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University, met with Mitch Gelman, vice president of product at Gannett Digital. '

Pacheco has visions of how the Oculus could be used in the future. Maps could be interactive and 3D, said Pacheco. Pacheco also said natural disaster stories would be perfect for the Oculus Rift, especially when it comes to flooding. He envisions a project where "you can dial in a city, go to one of the coastal areas of that city, and see what the water level is like now and see what it's like in 10, 20, 30 years." "That would be pretty powerful, because instead of reading about the possible effects of climate change, you're going to be in it," he said.

"Dan Pacheco, chair of journalism innovation at Syracuse University, presented a session showing off the virtual reality display in the Midway. Gannett is using Oculus Rift head-mounted devices for experiments in explanatory journalism. The devices - which cover the top of one's head and face - don't make viewers seasick these days, and the visual experience is stunning."

"I think we will be seeing two camps: Microsoft and a few startups like Meta2 and Vuzix on the business end, and Magic Leap and Apple (when Apple releases its rumored glasses) on the consumer end," Dan Pacheco, a professor of journalism and chair in journalism innovation at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications explained via email. "In the middle is Google,"-which, he added, has invested in Magic Leap.

Dan Pacheco, a chair in journalism innovation in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, teaches a tech for new media course. He's working with students on using Arduino microcontrollers and sensors to "measure everything from air quality to temperature," he says. "When you connect the Arduino to the Internet, it can upload data to a database so that others can see it and compare to their own data. These citizen sensor networks provide an alternative to government-reported data sources," he says.

The chairman of journalism innovation at Syracuse -- and a drone owner himself -- discusses the issues raised by the FAA's blanket ban on the commercial use of drones.

The chairman of journalism innovation at Syracuse -- and a drone owner himself -- discusses the issues raised by the FAA's blanket ban on the commercial use of drones.

"Pacheco sees this as one part of a growing field of what he calls Experiential Media. Over the next decade, media will increasingly move into our environment, and we will move into media, Pacheco says. Your body itself, rather than a mouse, computer or phone, will increasingly become the primary mode of navigation through content. Pacheco brought an Oculus Rift to Gannett and helped the company locate a 360-degree photo team and 3D modeler from the gaming industry. The process of building the virtual reality farm included 2D photos and videos, which were then superimposed onto Google maps to recreate the scene. Pacheco says, 'It was like watching a pop-up book come to life.' "

Prof. Pacheco was invited to present with Nonny de la Peña about Virtual Reality Journalism at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.

""The more difficult and complicated the subject, the more we seem to want to close the news app and open up Candy Crush," said Daniel Pacheco, a journalism professor at Syracuse University who specializes in VR storytelling. "VR can counteract this tendency because of its ability make you feel physically present somewhere and to comprehend information by exploring it in an almost physical way. It's hard to tune out or forget something you experienced as if you were there." Great storytelling is evocative and with VR can transport the viewer into another, time, place, and mindset complete with a range of emotions. Take Waves of Grace, a documentary on Liberia's Ebola crisis and how one woman used her immunity to help children orphaned by the disease's spread in 2014. The documentary's co-creator Chris Milk used 360-video to capture the protagonist's, Decontee Davis, surroundings - sights and sounds that put the viewer in the midst of an epidemic. "You relate differently to every other story you read about pandemic disease. Why? Because after that you feel like you were there, as if you stood inside an Ebola clinic while a dying victim was being treated and comforted. It can almost feel like one of your own memories," Pacheco said. "This ability to transport people's consciousness somewhere else is so powerful that I have no doubt it will change the way people relate to issues in the news.""

4/5/2014 Time Warner Cable News interview about using the Oculus Rift for immersive journalism and storytelling.