Young, Bold, Successful – The Common Language Project

CLP interviewing in Almaty/Kazakhstan

Text by Stine Eckert; Pictures by CLP (6) and Stine Eckert (1)

With money earned in day jobs three young Seattle journalists ventured into the Middle East and South East Asia to bring back compelling underreported stories and strong pictures from a world that US-Americans mostly know for conflicts and catastrophes. Publishing online they create a model for future journalism in the Web 2.0. Now they’re taking off to East Africa.

Jessica (middle) and Sarah(right) working in Pakistan

Julia Marino rushes to the journalists on stage. Like groupies she and fellow journalism students adore the Common Language Project of Sarah Stuteville (27), Alex Stonehill (26), and Jessica Partnow (26) presented at the online journalism conference. Julia is impressed by their simple model: Travel and tell stories that are neglected by mainstream media online The ad-free CLP website (www.clp.org) mixes quiet stories with dramatic reports presenting complex issues in clear words but without oversimplifying them. Audio slides, photos, essays, audio pieces, feature stories, country specific fact sheets and soon to come videos – with all the web offers the CLP reports about issues like a fascinating underground motel in Beijing, the reality of forced labor in Pakistan, and the system of prostitution in India. They’ve traveled to all these places to give victims a voice without using sensationalism. They admit to bend journalistic balance in favor of those who are not heard. “We do advocate journalism; we put the individual into the limelight,” says Sarah. “We want to do positive and humane reporting about countries that are underreported by the mass media.”

Catching up with people in the plains of Kyrgyzstan: Sarah (2nd from left) and Jessica (2nd from right)

“You want to become a terrorist?”
For eight months they journeyed through Thailand, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Israel, Palestine, and Egypt. They saved up $24,000 from donations by supporters and jobs: Sarah worked in the family furniture business, Alex as construction worker, and all of them freelanced. Already during college they traveled extensively. “Our rhythm was study, work, travel, study...” Sarah graduated with a BA in media and political science, Jessica with a BA in sociology and Roman Languages from Hunter College, NY, and Alex from New School University, NY with an emphasis on international politics. He’s the photographer of the group, speaks Arabic and Spanish. Jessica provides expertise for audio pieces and takes care of the website, speaks Spanish and French. Sarah who already won several prices awarded by the Independent Press Association is the main reporter and spokesperson of the CLP. The students in the Ohio University auditorium hang on her lips as she talks about Pakistan. “When we wanted to interview a little boy about his attendance of an Islamic school, our translator greeted him ‘So, you want to become a terrorist?’ and the interview was over.” She speaks about how the Pakistani secret service intimidated their translator: “But the hospitality of the Pakistani people was overwhelming. We never ate alone.”

Sarah riding in Kolkata, India

“Perhaps we celebrate the mass media too much”
“There are not many CLPs out there”, says Ohio University Director for International Journalism Professor Bob Stewart. Like his student Julia Marino, he’s a big fan of Sarah, Alex, and Jessica because they created their own jobs. “It’s brave and shows commitment, something that I like to see in my students, too.” He especially appreciates the CLP’s approach to publication: genuinely researched articles tailored for online use and exclusively published on the website instead of feeding the web with already existing newspaper reports. “They’re an exception,” he says. In contrast to Europe, going off and exploring the world plus freelancing is not a popular and common ticket to US journalism. Most US students want to grab a job in the mass media says Professor Stewart: “Perhaps because we celebrate mass media too much.” It was he who invited the CLP to give lectures and workshops during OU’s Journalism Day to spread the word about this unusual media outlet. “There are many independent media but few of them travel to deliver in-depth reports and feature stories online.” Being a locally popular singer-songwriter and accomplished guitar player his support has gone as far as giving a benefit concert to round up money for the CLP’s trip to East Africa this month.

He’s not the only local supporter. OU graduate student Julia Marino’s initial enthusiasm with the CLP has gone further than with most groupies: She joined the CLP backed up by $4.000 of the John R. Wilhelm Scholarship for Foreign Correspondence awarded by OU’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. It’s the first time the money is given to a student to work within a non-commercial alternative media instead of financing time with CNN, AP or other global players in the business. “The CLP does something valuable in the here and now. Julia will learn a lot with them,” says Professor Stewart.

Julia Marino and Ernest Waititu organized an African benefit dinner for the current trip

“I don’t want to support corporate greed”
Julia is thrilled to a colleague of the three Seattle journalists now: “Everything that I admire and respect about journalism I see in the CLP”. She’s disenchanted with mass media thinking of product marketing and eyeball chasing. “I don’t want to support this corporate greed; the CLP is a new generation of journalists, hungry for news, curious to discover the world.” She will provide video for the website on the East Africa trip.

The CLP didn’t only have an impact on OU’s faculty and students but also on Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism instructor Jane Ellen Stevens who uses the CLP website to teach journalism from scratch. “[The CLP is] important, because of how Sarah, Jessica and Alex approach their reporting: from the bottom up, not the top down. They live in a place for a while, to get to understand it. Whereas most of traditional international reporters bounce from one war, famine, and disaster to another they cover other issues in ways that provide a portal to greater understanding of a place and the people who live there.” Meanwhile her students have started projects copying the CLP says Stevens: “Small groups of journalists can start their own online journalism site and do significant reporting that helps people understand issues very clearly and make connections with people in ways that haven't been possible before the advent of the web.”

“A million people tell you how crazy you are”
When Sarah and Jessica were about to graduate in November 2006, Sarah was sure she missed the online journalism hype: “I thought now I have a degree in journalism that is irrelevant.” In her opinion colleges don’t teach students enough online and multimedia skills that are in high demand in the real world. “There’s a lot you can teach yourself. We sat down in a park and asked what we wanted to really do and came up with the CLP,” she says. Said and done. With a laptop, iPod, and camera they simply took off. She’s convinced that journalism is at the crossroads: “Everyone who loves journalism should use this great opportunity. A million people tell you how crazy you are. But everyone can do it.”

Exploring the streets of Bhopal, India: Sarah and Jessica

Today the four take off to Africa supported by the renowned Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and accompanied by OU graduate and native Kenyan Ernest Waititu who created the website afrikanews.org for his Master’s project and will guide the CLP to cover East Africa. Don’t miss genuine stories from enthusiastic journalists who report beyond mainstream. Visit:

http://commonlanguageproject.net/
www.afrikanews.org

In the mountains of Kyrgystan: Sarah, Jessica, and Alex (from left to right)