Global Connection Through New Media

This feature was included in CPD's 2024–2025 Annual Report. 

Robert Hernandez, CPD Faculty Fellow and Professor of Professional Practice of Journalism at USC Annenberg, focuses on exploring and developing the intersection of technology and journalism — to empower people, inform reporting and storytelling, engage the community, improve distribution, and, whenever possible, enhance revenue.

At its core, public diplomacy is about helping people connect with a country, a culture and communities. The tools we teach at USC Annenberg—from 360-degree video, to volumetric capture, to gaussian splatting, to AR/VR—can allow that connection to happen in a deeply personal, immediate way, and I’ve been fortunate to guide students through those experiences around the world. During the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the Korea Foundation supported a trip for me, two students, and a CPD staff member. We set out to document historic towns, neighborhoods, and Olympic sites, producing immersive material that eventually appeared in outlets like NPR, NBC, and USA Today. The experience became a rare opportunity to engage simultaneously with sports diplomacy, tourism diplomacy, and the rapidly evolving craft of immersive storytelling. A similar opportunity arose in Qatar. After a summer workshop, they asked whether I would bring students to Doha, and my answer was an enthusiastic yes, as long as we could frame the trip around tourism storytelling. They opened doors to museums and cultural sites, and, just before the World Cup, we captured a Club World Cup match and produced an immersive story about falconry and even an experience built around virtual portals that allowed audiences to step into Doha’s spaces.

Whether we like it or not, technology keeps reshaping how stories are told. My message to public diplomacy practitioners is twofold: you will be uncomfortable, and that’s part of the process; and you must stay proactive rather than reactive. These emerging tools will influence your work whether you prepare for them or not. Understanding them—how they might enhance your mission, help you serve communities, or strengthen engagement—is essential. Bring your values, your creativity, and your goals into these new spaces, and use the technology intentionally to advance the work you care about.