In 2017, JOVRNALISM took on the challenge to tell VR stories of the local community to the community and make the high-tech produced content easily accessible, and was selected as one of the award winners of Online News Association’s Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. Led by USC Professor Robert Hernandez, JOVRNALISM is working to democratize emerging technologies such as AR/VR and photogrammetry and their use in non-fiction storytelling.

That’s why if you attended one of KCRW’s Summer Nights’ Backyard Party series or Gustavo’s Great Tortilla Tournament you might have noticed one booth in the midst of sizzling grills and thirst-quenching beverages that had the longest lines. And no, it wasn’t the food truck. To make high-tech stories more accessible to the general public, JOVRNALISM launched pop-up demos for their immersive documentaries such as the Online Journalism Awards nominee The Deported: Life Beyond the Border.

Throughout the events, JOVRNALISM immersed attendees of all ages and backgrounds in experiences around the world from Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea to the life of the deported beyond the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico. The immersive experiences were produced solely by students who not only had to travel to these destinations but also swiftly learn how to utilize brand-new technologies they had never used before.

Though most of the developed content has been successfully published by media giants such as NPR and get nominated for awards, JOVRNALISM is just getting started. In its seventh semester, students of this hackathon-type class are covering homelessness in Los Angeles County and will produce content to tackle one of the biggest social issues in their area.

JOVRNALISM’s efforts to democratize high-tech stories go beyond demoing what has already been produced. Fall 2018 semester students will lead a hands-on immersive video training session for individuals experiencing homelessness. Held at LA’s Central Library, the free two-day workshop will teach members of the homeless community how to use 360 video/VR technologies and hope to empower them to tell their own stories. In collaboration with Al Jazeera’s Contrast VR, JOVRNALISM will gift Samsung Gear 360 cameras to the participants and offer additional training to help finish the production for those that want to. Al Jazeera’s Contrast VR aims at publishing first-person stories from under-represented communities.

To find out about what’s to come, follow @thejovrnalism on Twitter, @jovrnalism on Instagram, and download our application on Google Play, Apple App Store, and Oculus.