By Jocelyn Rockhold

Some may think that AustinTalks covers the sprawling metropolis in Texas, but the news outlet actually produces stories focused somewhere much smaller — the neighborhood of Austin in westside Chicago.

Suzanne McBride, a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago, hoped to change news coverage of the area when she created AustinTalks.org, a hyperlocal news site that aimed to showcase the diverse community of the neighborhood. Launched in 2010, the project was initially funded by a $45,000 grant from The Chicago Community Trust.

“I was particularly interested in the lack of positive news, the one-dimensional nature of the news that was being presented by the mainstream media, which is very typical in many, many cities,” McBride said. “You know what people thought of Austin? They thought it was a crime-ridden place (they) don't want to go to. And in fact, there's a very rich history in that neighborhood.”

Students at Columbia College Chicago produce most of the stories and content for AustinTalks. Students come to work for AustinTalks from majors such as Journalism, civic media and communication.

Students earn the minimum wage set by the city of Chicago, and some also write for the publication for course credit. Although not all students who write for AustinTalks go on to work as journalists, McBride saidthe experience in itself is a benefit.

“Even if they don't become professional journalists, they’re at least engaged citizens who know how media works and can be engaged in different levels,” said McBride, who is also the dean of graduate studies at the college and has worked for more than three decades as a newspaper editor and reporter in Chicago and various papers in Indiana.

The Austin neighborhood is covered by other hyperlocal publications. AustinTalks is not meant to replace those outlets but supplement them, McBride said. One of those news sources is Austin Weekly News. Its publisher, Dan Haley, has been especially receptive to partnering with AustinTalks, McBride said. She coordinates coverage with Austin Weekly News, ensuring that AustinTalks doesn’t encroach on the other publication’s stories.

Austin Weekly News is “very progressive and forward-thinking,” especially about collaboration, she said. “In a lot of other places, I would've been viewed as competition. They would not have wanted to partner,” McBride continued. “So we definitely saw our niche as just doing stories that they weren't doing.”

Many of the AustinTalks reporters are students of color, she said, and that drives not only their interest in the coverage but their insights into the experiences of the people they’re covering.

“That's been really powerful, I think, for the community as well as for those students, because they're able to actually be in a community that, even if they're not from there, they become pretty quick experts,” McBride said. “And I think it has also helped educate other students who generally haven't been involved at all but know about the project, because they know about this really cool neighborhood that needs coverage.”