Journalism and Community Storytelling
JACS Student, Cindy Gao, speaking with Loretta Smith at the August Wilson House.
Summary
Hill District community members viewing art during a tour of the August Wilson House
One powerful manifestation of community work that is often overlooked is storytelling in the media. In Pittsburgh the stories of the Black community have been overlooked, particularly when those stories do not support the dominant narrative of Pittsburgh as the most liveable city. News organizations and media outlets are beginning to provide these opportunities but are not always successful or accurate in their efforts. Social media is easily created and consumed, but creators are often biased and motivated by self-promotion rather than community benefit. Inspired by the work of Carol Hardeman and the Hill District Consensus Group, this program works to train and engage young people as the next generation of community storytellers.
Using journalistic techniques and storytelling, students engage with communities in a deep and meaningful way beyond the typical undergraduate experience. When we consume media we gain perspective, however all media is not equal. Young people consume large amounts of social media, which reinforces biases more often than it challenges them. By teaching the art of community-based storytelling we can make a meaningful change in how the youth experience communities.
We have partnered with the Hill District Consensus Group, the August Wilson House and the University of Pittsburgh to teach a small cohort of university students the basics of journalism, storytelling and community engagement so that they can tell uniquely powerful stories from overlooked communities with more informed perspectives.
Accomplishments
Our first iteration of JACS cohort is now complete as of Summer 2025. We had four Carnegie Mellon University students meet with community members in the Hill District to hear and tell their life stories and produce multimedia projects. This cohort was in collaboration with the Ms. Carol Hardeman with the Hill District Consensus Group and Dr. Ervin Dyer with the August Wilson House.
Students underwent two weeks of training with guest presenters to learn about the basics of journalism, interviewing, researching using the Hillman Library archives and working with documentarians. We then introduced them to the community members that they would be interviewing where they assumed the responsibility of setting up interviews and scheduling with the film team, Redwood Media Group.
Students did great work and learned a lot working with the community members. They did an excellent job showcasing their creativity with their multimedia pieces and different styles of writing. We look forward to our next cohort and will be showcasing the pieces from this iteration with the August Wilson House this fall.
Goals
The Journalism and Community Storytelling Cohort looks to build upon it’s success and expand into collaboration with other universities to provide a wider array of journalism and storytelling opportunities to students past CMU’s campus. The ultimate goal is to create a network where students from universities in the Pittsburgh region can visit different schools and have a larger selection of opportunities to choose from covering different areas and specialties in the field of journalism. We want to provide the next generation of journalists the chance to garner experience anywhere from ‘man on the street’ storytelling to reporting on government meetings, and the more resources we are able to provide towards that endeavor, the better.
