Over seven days, we sat with people across the Pittsburgh region in office spaces, libraries, online, a pizza parlor and a brewery and asked: What matters to you, and what do you want from local journalism?
A few people pulled us aside afterward to say something that stopped us in our tracks: “I came because I don’t think a journalist or a news outlet has ever asked me that.”
That’s not a compliment to us. It’s a challenge to all of us in this field. Research consistently shows that nearly 80% of people have never interacted directly with a journalist. Of those who have, some carry a sour taste. Newsrooms too often function like cubicled ivory towers, where editors decide what matters, reporters parachute in for the big moment, and communities only see “the news” when something goes wrong.
Seven town halls in seven days was our attempt to do something different. We called it “You Have the Floor.” About 150 people participated, not sitting in an audience quietly but speaking to their neighbors and documenting their thoughts. Nearly 40 journalists joined them.
Thanks to the journalists who participated and the event venues that supported our town hall series.
What we heard (aloud and across 500 sticky notes)
Across every session, in neighborhoods that differ by demographic and economic measures, many of the same themes surfaced. Housing, transit and affordability dominated. So did economic development, specifically how the city grows, what kinds of businesses get incentivized and whether those incentives are actually delivering for residents.
Curious about the town hall conversations?
Read the summaries from each of the seven “You Have the Floor” town halls.
Underlying all of it was something harder to quantify: a hunger for connection. People said they want to know their neighbors. They see that as an antidote to nearly everything, from isolation to safety concerns to political division and disconnection from civic life.
People also told us, clearly, that they count on journalists to be their eyes and ears. They can’t make it to every school board meeting. Many said they don’t have the time or expertise to navigate records requests. They need someone doing that work on their behalf. That’s not a demand for more outrage or more alerts. It’s a request for accountability journalism that serves people.
People also told us they struggle to know what’s happening. They were not referring to investigative findings or enterprise stories, just events, meetings, gatherings in their own neighborhoods. In some places, the problem is an absence of information. In others, it’s a firehose with no way to filter it. One community participant in McKeesport pointed to a digital board the local government installed on a main street that lists meetings and events as a helpful step.
Information access was only part of what people asked for. They want coverage that doesn’t leave them feeling helpless, points to resources and shows what other communities are trying. There was real worry in the rooms about vulnerable communities: immigrants, people experiencing addiction, people without housing. People said they don’t know how to help. They don’t know what resources exist. They’re looking to journalism to bridge that gap.
And they want journalism that makes room for joy. People talked about arts festivals, block parties, neighbors helping neighbors. Libraries, cultural institutions and local nonprofits were repeatedly called out by name as places making a difference in people’s lives and as places local journalism could do more to cover.
Food metaphors are surprisingly rampant in journalism and it fits: People don’t just want the vegetables, they want a full, wholesome meal.
The surprises and the tensions
More people than we expected identified themselves as journalists — not on staff at newsrooms, but as community members who report, document and share. The line between audience and journalist is blurring, and it’s happening whether the industry acknowledges it or not.
We also heard something that felt contradictory at first: People recognize there are more than 40 local news sources in the Pittsburgh region, and they still feel whole geographies go uncovered. It’s what news fragmentation actually looks like from the inside. One community participant in Carnegie described it adeptly: Journalists “bunch” around the same big stories, five similar articles get filed with errors because they’re rushed and single-sourced, and then everyone leaves.
Read more on Pittsburgh media
More than 40 news sources remain in Pittsburgh’s fragmented media landscape
In four of seven sessions, concerns about neighborhood image emerged. Residents feel their communities are perceived by outsiders and sometimes internally through a distorted lens, one shaped largely by what gets covered and what doesn’t. They want journalists who consider those implications, and coverage that tells a fuller story.
People also came with structural critiques of the industry itself. They want media literacy taught in schools. They’re worried about misinformation and the erosion of fact-checking, and they connect that directly to journalism’s credibility problem.
What this means for us
We left these sessions energized in a way that’s hard to manufacture from behind a desk. Listening does that. It reminds you why this work matters and recalibrates what “important” actually means.
At Pittsburgh’s Public Source, this listening is shaping what we cover next and how we show up in communities.
It’s also a challenge to the broader journalism community: Ask the people you cover what they need. Not through a survey, not through a comment section, but in a room, face to face, with space to actually hear the answer.
We’re grateful and heartened that so many of our colleagues came out and happily did just that with us.
We also want to extend our gratitude to the organizations and businesses who made their spaces available to us.
And most of all, thank you to the community members who gave your time, thoughts and energy.
We’re not done listening.
Halle Stockton and Jennie Liska are co-executive directors of Pittsburgh’s Public Source. You can reach us at halle@publicsource.org and jennie@publicsource.org.
Media represented:
- TribLive
- City Cast Pittsburgh
- McKeesport Community Newsroom
- XSquared Media
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- InformUp
- New Castle News
- Radio Las Palmas
- Pittsburgh Latino Magazine
- Point Park University Center for Media Innovation
- Patricia Doherty Yoder Institute for Ethics and Integrity in Journalism and Media
- Te Lo Cuento News
- Independent journalists
- Pittsburgh’s Public Source
Participating event venues:
- Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation in Beechview
- Carnegie Library of McKeesport
- Tavern Pizza in Bellevue
- Catapult Greater Pittsburgh
- Andrew Free Carnegie Library in Carnegie
- Local Remedy Brewing in Oakmont
