PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

The movie “Spotlight” brought home the Best Picture Oscar for its portrayal of the Boston Globe’s real-life uncovering of a decades-long coverup of child abuse by numerous priests in the Catholic Church.

That was in 2016, at a time when the phrase “fake news” was growing in popularity and journalists were often seen as objects of suspicion rather than trusted sources of facts. The movie was a powerful reminder of the importance of the press.

It’s fitting then, that the movie’s real-life counterparts will be in town for events connected to the first-ever Newsapalooza, organized by Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation. The event, to be held Sept. 26-28, will stress the importance of news — and remind people that local journalists are actually their friends and neighbors.

Related: 7 Things to Do in Pittsburgh This September

“[It’s about] reintroducing ourselves as journalists to the public so that people don’t think of the media as the enemy but rather their neighbors and other people who live down the street or they see at the Friday night football game or fish fry,” says Andy Conte, director of the Center for Media Innovation.

On Sept. 27, the Globe’s now-Editor At Large Walter “Robby” Robinson, portrayed by Pittsburgher Michael Keaton in the movie “Spotlight,” will speak at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Downtown. Marty Baron, the former editor of the Boston Globe, will speak on Sept. 14, which is also presented by The International Free Expression Project.

Another national name on the marquee is Robert Costa, chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News.

“Whoever’s coming, we wanted them to come because they believe in the spirit of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Conte says. “We didn’t want to just pay somebody big bucks to just come to Pittsburgh to be a talking head, we wanted them to actually be invested in Newsapalooza and this whole idea of Pittsburgh community.”

Other speakers on the 27th will include former Wilkinsburg Mayor Marita Garrett, the founding president and CEO of Civically Inc.; Salena Zito, a political reporter for the Washington Examiner who worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for 11 years; Annafi Wahed, founder of Pittsburgh-based The Flip Side, a newsletter that curates columns from liberal and conservative viewpoints; and Lara Putnam, an expert on grassroots politics and history professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Conte says the event is modeled off of festivals held in conjunction with newspapers in other cities; Conte previously attended the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

“What I saw there was people, just regular citizens, the public, they were applauding the journalists and celebrating and recognizing them, like, oh, this is something that involves all of us, that the public has a role in. So we’re like, let’s try to do something like that in Pittsburgh.”

The weekend will also include hands-on workshops, events with some of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership’s 29 news outlets (of which Pittsburgh Magazine is a member) and a competition called The Pittsburgh Pitch.

The Center for Media Innovation has invited journalists, students and citizens to pitch an idea for a news story on the stage of the Pittsburgh Playhouse. A celebrity editorial board including Sally Wiggin, Rick Sebak and Miracle Jones will give feedback, and the audience will get to vote on their favorite idea. Each of the three winners will get $1,000 to report on their story.

“We wanted people to not just sit and listen to somebody talk, but actually to be part of the news process, to decide like, what are the stories that get told?” Conte says.

“There’s this idea of social capital that newspapers used to generate sort of organically by just informing people about what was going on in their communities. As we’ve seen the news shrink and change … a lot of places have lost that sense of connection, not only with the news, but also with each other. And so we really see Newsapalooza as a way to connect people.”