CMI 2020 Annual Report

McKeesport Community Newsroom
McKeesport Community Newsroom
Writers build community
through stories
By Matt Petras
people for a live reading from members of
the writers group.
“The mood was so loving and supportive,”
Rial said. “It was really moving for them to
get up on stage and to share their stories
with people and to see their families come
out and support them that night. It was an
incredibly touching evening.”
In addition to regular workshops, the
newsroom also invites guests for
special presentations about journalism and
storytelling. In the summer of 2019, Helen
Fallon, former director of Point Park University’s
Honors Program and a Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette copy editor, visited to do a
workshop about attribution, bias and sourcing,
for example. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Staff Photographer Michael Santiago also
came to present his work.
Busch regularly attends the writing
workshops, using them as an opportunity
to flex his writing muscles and hear the
diverse experiences of others.
“I like listening to the other
people’s stories and getting
some insight into different life
experiences that are different,”
Busch said. “They’re not what
I’ve experienced.”
Busch loves the newsroom’s location in the
former McKeesport Daily News building,
which shut down in late 2015. He admires
the building’s classic newspaper
architecture and history.
“I used to work occasionally in the
McKeesport Daily News building,” Busch
said. “I’m glad to see there’s something
happening there because I just think it’s one
of the coolest places on the planet.”
The Pittsburgh Foundation provides funding
for the McKeesport Community Newsroom,
led by project manager Martha Rial. The
program operates in conjunction with
YouthCAST, an afterschool program for young
people.
Photo by Stephen Willing
Vickie Babyak, of Dravosburg, reads during Tube City Writers Live at Tube City Center in McKeesport in November 2019.
Jim Busch, a 67-year-old White Oak
resident retired from the advertising
industry, remembers McKeesport’s best
days fondly. Though he has witnessed the
city’s decline, the Center for Media
Innovation’s McKeesport Community
Newsroom gives him joy.
“I can remember when McKeesport was a
big deal, and I’m just glad to see something
positive happening here,” Busch said. “I
mean, it’s been bad news for most of my
life, but this is something good.”
The McKeesport Community Newsroom,
founded in April 2019 and based in the
former McKeesport Daily News building,
brings together Mon Valley residents for
storytelling and journalism programs.
The newsroom follows the CMI’s
McKeesport Media Oasis project from 2018,
which saw media professionals facilitate
writing and photography work from
McKeesport middle and high school
students. Martha Rial, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning
photographer based in the Pittsburgh
area, serves as the newsroom’s project
director, overseeing a bevy of writing,
photography and journalism programs and
events.
“For me, it’s a way to build community
through storytelling,” Rial said. “Not only is
it a way to improve your written and visual
communication skills, but it’s a chance to
meet new friends, learn more about your
neighbors… [and] also how to share
information responsibly.”
Rial oversees the newsroom’s Tube City
Writers group led by Dr. Nicole Peeler, a fiction
writer and Seton Hill professor, as well as the
photography workshops done in partnership
with the Carnegie Library of McKeesport.
Both groups meet regularly, welcoming
aspiring storytellers of all ages.
Back in November 2019, the newsroom hosted
Tub City Writers Live, drawing about 35
Photo by Destiny Robinson
Kids participate in a “Pop Up + Play” event at Harrison Village in McKeesport in July 2019.
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