February 22, 2010
Common Language Project practicing new, hybrid journalism
A new course at the University of Washington is preparing future journalists for a career environment that has changed dramatically in the last few years.
Jessica Partnow, Alex Stonehill and Sarah Stuteville created the Common Language Project in 2006, and it’s grown to include “Entrepreneurial Journalism,” a class for UW undergraduates. The work is based on ideas that grew out of the three reporters’ experiences and those of others in their field: that future journalists need to be trained in multimedia, that they may be working independently and that they may need a variety of funding sources.
Founded as a nonprofit, Common Language is named for journalism that crosses borders to tell stories of human struggle.
As reporters, Partnow, Stonehill and Stuteville see need for more in-depth international journalism so have reported independently from places such as India, Cambodia and Ethiopia. Their latest work, for example, is a four-part series on immigration detention that will air on KUOW, a National Public Radio station in Seattle, from Feb. 23 to 26.
Nonprofit status enables Common Language to receive grants from foundations and solicit other forms of support. In each of the last two years, the project has received $15,000 to $20,000 from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to fund stories in East Africa and Pakistan. It’s also received $60,000 from the Foundation for Global Community to help cover two years of salaries and operational expenses.
Common Language is also a finalist in the We Media Game Changer Awards, which recognize people and projects that use the media to inspire good changes.
As part-time lecturers at the UW, Partnow, Stonehill and Stuteville teach the entrepreneurial journalism class and offer workshops based on the new model of journalism they themselves practice. Since such journalism is done independently rather than as part of a for-profit news organization, the three also teach their students how to market themselves as individuals or as members of a nonprofit. If all goes according to plan, student work will be published by Next Door Media, a five-member group of neighborhood blogs in Seattle.
Stonehill, Partnow and Stuteville are committed to two years in the Department of Communication, and parts of their salaries come from its alumni. They teach the 18 undergraduates on Mondays and Wednesdays but to make ends meet, they also have outside jobs. Stonehill works construction two days a week, Stuteville restores antiques and Partnow is office manager for Reel Grrls, a Seattle nonprofit that offers young women after-school training in media technology.
These reporters and others like them see future journalism supported by multiple sources: foundations, freelance payments, teaching, individual fundraising and perhaps government funding, sort of like public radio and public television. “Unfortunately,” said Stonehill, “journalism is becoming less like a career in the traditional sense. There are starving journalists just like there are starving artists.”
Colleagues in the communication department say they are glad the Common Language Project has arrived.
“Our journalism students are gaining greatly from having working journalists in the building with them,” said Roger Simpson, a communication professor instrumental in bringing the project to the university.
“The Common Language Project is the best model I’ve seen for how today’s young journalists need to approach the production of news,” said David Domke, department chairman. “In a word, they are entrepreneurial.”
For more information on the Common Language Project as well as on its stories and the reporting course, visit http://www.clpmag.org/. For the KUOW series, go to http://kuow.org/specials/betweenworlds.php .
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For additional information, contact Jessica Partnow at 206-403-3932 or jpartnow@uw.edu; Alex Stonehill at 206-403-3933 or stonehil@uw.edu; Sarah Stuteville at 206-403-3931 or stute@uw.edu.
