REGISTER: Headlines and Fault Lines
A reception with food and drink will follow.
How do Pittsburghers find out what’s happening in this election, and whom do they believe? Some still start the day with the local paper or KDKA. Others rely on podcasts, newsletters, a neighborhood Facebook group, or a link a relative sends to the family group chat. As our sources multiply and split apart, neighbors can live through the same campaign and come away with very different pictures of it.
This Agora Forum brings together journalists from across the region who cover Pittsburgh from different vantage points, including broadcast radio, community and faith-based media, and a nonprofit digital news platform. They’ll talk candidly about how news reaches people today, what it takes to inform a community that is divided along political, generational, and neighborhood lines, and how trust in a news source is earned and lost.
Journalists and students from across the political spectrum are wrestling with these same questions in newsrooms, classrooms, and campus conversations. This forum puts those perspectives in one room. Panelists will discuss which sources residents trust and why, how they handle misinformation and polarization on their own beats, and how reporters can serve audiences who don’t agree with one another, or with them.
We’ll also look at what people are actually talking about this election season: the issues voters raise on social media, on call-in shows, in reader emails, and at kitchen tables, the stories that aren’t getting enough attention, and what the results could mean for Pittsburgh, the region, and the country.
Come for a lively, civil conversation about news, trust, and democracy close to home, and bring your questions.
Panelists:
- Charlie Wolfson, Public Choice
- Marty Griffin, KDKA Radio
- Jim Busis, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
- Abigail Hakas, Latrobe Bulletin
- John Allison, TribLIVE
- Natalie Bencivenga, Independent Journalist
Moderator:
- Kristen Kanthak, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh
- Jordyn Thurmond, BridgePitt, University of Pittsburgh
Monday, November 2, 2026, 4:30 PM ET
University Club, Ballroom A, University of PittsburghPresented by the Center for Governance and Markets, co-sponsored by Campus Compact
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