A new crop of interns have signed up to help PublicSource tell stories for a better Pittsburgh as we enter a new year and a new presidential administration that’s already roiling local communities. While they’re eager to dive into civic affairs, equity and accountability, our introductory conversation took a detour into a less weighty — yet equally contentious — debate among journalists, officials and neighbors alike: Is Pittsburgh Midwestern?
Chicago native Jake Vasilias says it is.
“As someone who is Midwestern, I get the same aura or vibes in Pittsburgh,” he said, adding that from his experience the people from both Chicago and Pittsburgh tend to be “down-to-earth” and “hardworking.”
Midwest 1, East 0
Jake, a PublicSource editorial intern, arrived in Pittsburgh in 2021 after a campus visit the prior year that left him smitten with Oakland and its environs.
He enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh with plans to pursue business but, tugged by his conscience, he began contributing to The Pitt News and switched majors to professional writing.
“I didn’t want to just sit on a cash cow and insulate myself from the world,” he said. “I want to make a difference.”
Jake hopes his time at PublicSource will build his environmental reporting portfolio and prepare him for a news gig either in Pittsburgh or Chicago.
Anastasia Busby was raised on the West Coast and then spent four years smack in the middle of the country studying photojournalism at the University of Missouri. Our returning photography intern took another eastbound step when she arrived here last summer, but she suspects there’s a meaningful cultural frontier separating Pittsburgh and the East Coast proper.
“It reminds me of the Midwest a lot. … But it doesn’t really look like the Midwest,” Anastasia said. “I was amazed by the number of trees and hills.”
Midwest 2, East 0
After familiarizing herself with many of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods last semester, Anastasia is excited to go deeper while employing her camera as an instrument of community storytelling.
Like Jake, she was drawn to journalism by a desire to bring change.
“I love photojournalism and journalism because I get to help make some sort of a difference and also scratch this itch of curiosity I have about all these different professions, and be introduced to all kinds of people and walks of life.”
As a native Pittsburgher, Editorial Intern Bella Markovitz isn’t bucking the Midwest consensus.
“I’ve been to New York City and I’ve been to Philadelphia — that’s my East Coast,” she said. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has strong “working class” associations that, in Bella’s view, give it a more Midwestern flavor.
Final: Midwest 3, East 0
Since graduating Pitt last year with a degree in English writing and a certificate in public and professional writing, Bella has carved out a place in the local journalism scene, freelancing for TribLive and other outlets.
A lifelong reader and writer, Bella switched majors from political science after a couple of journalism classes and a Pitt News internship pointed to a career path that would reward her love for “snooping.”
“I’m nebby,” she said. “I’m into the investigative.”
The shakiness of the local news economy only adds to Bella’s desire to forge a path there as she looks beyond her internship.
“There are powerful people who don’t want you to know what’s going on,” Bella said. “So that adds to the need to be doing it.”
Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at PublicSource and can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.
