CMI Annual Report 2023-2024

MESSAGE FROM
THE DIRECTOR
MISSION STATEMENT
The Center for Media Innovation at
Point Park University stimulates creative
thinking about the future of storytelling among
young people, professionals and the public,
focusing on narrative, entrepreneurship and
community engagement.
Change is hard. Or at least it can be.
When first-year students come to Point Park University,
it often seems like a major adjustment to go from the
comforts of home and the academic challenges of high
school to independent living and study. Many young
people talk about how they miss having a bell system
that told them when classes start and end – and that
they struggle with how to organize their free time. But
within a semester or two, they figure it out and start
thriving amid the college environment.
Then after four years, those same students make
another transition into life after college. This can be
even more jarring because of the expectations to find
a job (let alone a purpose) and to start supporting
oneself financially.
I tell our graduating seniors, it’s OK to feel
uncomfortable as long as they keep moving forward.
Look around at your parents, guardians and role
models, I say. People figure out adulting on their own terms and with some time, each of our graduates does too.
As it says in our name, the Center for Media Innovation exists in a space of perpetual change. We’re constantly
experimenting with new ways to discover information, share our findings with others, and sustain this work. We
believe in supporting local journalism, now and into the future, as a bedrock principle of American democracy.
Even with this mission in mind, the period covered by this annual magazine reveals a remarkable amount of growth.
We relocated the CMI to a renovated space in a University-owned building; we opened a new shared newsroom for
smaller news outlets – the Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub – in the Benedum-Trees Building; and we created a
new certificate program for citizen reporters.
We also continue to evolve by working with young people in programs such as High School Media Day; with
professionals through efforts such as the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, which brings together more than two
dozen news outlets; and with the public through our Community Newsroom Project.
Change also produces results. The CMI prepares young people for lives of service in communication-related
careers, helps professionals lean into the disruption that creates new opportunities, and engages the public in the
work of supporting American democracy through information awareness and accountability.
We invite you to not only join us on this journey but to help shape the innovations to come.
Andrew Conte, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President and Managing Director
Center for Media Innovation
Photo by Nancy Andrews