McKEESPORT, Pa. — McKeesport native and retired KDKA-TV journalist Harold Hayes will help kick off a new speaker series designed to spark conversations about media literacy and media careers in the Mon Valley.
Hayes will be the first speaker in a series called “In Greater Context: Media, Messaging and the Mon Valley,” presented by Penn State Greater Allegheny and Tube City Community Media Inc.
The inaugural event is free and open to the public. It will be held at 3:30 p.m. April 13 in the Ostermayer Room of the Student Community Center at Greater Allegheny, 4000 University Drive, McKeesport.
Organizers said they are especially hopeful that Penn State students and area high schools who are interested in digital journalism will attend.
Tube City Community Media publishes the Tube City Almanac digital newspaper, which provides news and obituaries, and produces programming for local radio stations, including WEDO, WZUM and WRCT. Jason Togyer, executive director of Tube City Community Media, said he and Rosemary Martinelli, assistant teaching professor of marketing and communications at Penn State Greater Allegheny, have been discussing possible avenues for collaboration for several months.
Martinelli said Hayes is the perfect person to kick off the new speaker series. A native of McKeesport and a graduate of South Hills High School, Hayes began his career at a radio station in Pekin, IIIinois, and then quickly rose through the ranks before returning to Pittsburgh to work at KDKA-TV.
At KDKA, Hayes covered such memorable stories as Major League Baseball’s 1985 cocaine scandal, the 1990 Pittsburgh mob trials, and several high-profile homicide cases. As a correspondent for KDKA and Group W Broadcasting, Hayes also reported from Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, and from the Vatican during the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II.
Togyer said they are approaching other journalists with Mon Valley ties for future installments of the speaker series this fall.
In addition to the speaker series, Tube City and Penn State Greater Allegheny are now pursuing ways that they can share content between Tube City Almanac and the campus’s award-winning student-led newspaper, the GA-Zette, Togyer said. Both he and Martinelli also have spoken with local high schools about ways in which aspiring journalists can be mentored in media careers.
“As local newspapers and radio stations have downsized, there are fewer opportunities for entry-level jobs and mentorship for aspiring content creators,” Togyer said. “We are hoping to open up some new pathways to careers and also help young adults develop the skills to look at the information they get online with a more critical eye.”