Pacheco to publish textbook on emerging media platforms

Dan Pacheco, professor of practice in magazine, news and digital journalism and Peter A. Horvitz endowed chair in journalism innovation, is under contract with Routledge to publish the textbook, “Experimenting With Emerging Media Platforms: Field Testing the Future.”

The textbook aims to teach students in communications fields how to approach and evaluate emerging technologies that could impact how media is produced, consumed and monetized in the future. It is based loosely around a course Pacheco has taught at the Newhouse School, as well as lessons learned from 20 years in digital product jobs at large media companies and startups.

The book is designed to serve as a companion textbook for classes that media educators can incorporate into their own emerging tech courses, while also being helpful for those wishing to learn independently. Pacheco is also planning a community element, where anyone who goes through the process can share their own stories of innovation—including successes, as well as what didn’t work and what they learned from the experience. The book will also explore current technology trends such as extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) and will include some basics for coding for the web.

“One of the fun elements for those who have taken my courses, or worked with me in the Innovation Lab, is that it will include a few case studies of experiments and field tests that students did,” says Pacheco. “I will be reaching out to some of those alumni for interviews, as well as to industry innovators to write up their case studies.”

“Experimenting With Emerging Media Platforms: Field Testing the Future” is slated for a release in 2022-23.