Showcase: Off the Bluff Magazine

By Julie Pawlikowski, second year graduate student in the Media Management program

Every year, the students of Dr. Mike Dillon’s magazine journalism course hit the streets of one of Pittsburgh’s many neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Project zeroes in on what makes a community tick. The magazine is produced annually and publishes a physical copy late in the spring semester.

Magazine Journalism is a writing-intensive course in which students learn how to produce nonfiction articles such as profiles, trend stories and columns for both print and online magazine. The lectures focus on sourcing, interviewing and narrative style as well as on the diverse roles and functions of magazines. The class produces an edition of Off the Bluff magazine which started in the fall of 2005. The most recent edition explored the Oakland neighborhood. Students went into the Oakland neighborhood and found interesting people or places to profile as well as exploring the community’s history. They produced their own articles, shot their own photography and videos, and created their own graphs. They also had help from the students in the Media Lab course to create accompanying multimedia pieces.

Off the Bluff has covered the following neighborhoods: Uptown, Polish Hill, South Side, North Side, Bloomfield, The Strip District, Squirrel Hill, East Liberty, Brookline and Oakland.

The covers of all the Off the Bluff magazines are hanging in the computer room 345 College Hall for all to see. The Oakland cover will be hung next.

Visit offthebluff.com to see past issues and additional content.