"Media in Crisis: The Journalist as Entrepreneur"
Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

The Common Language Project (www.clpmag.org) was the focus of a free, MCDM-sponsored workshop, "Media in Crisis: The Journalist as Entrepreneur" on Nov. 14.

Assignment editors Jim Simon from the Seattle Times and Jim Gates from KUOW discussed realistic freelance expectations and the latest opportunities.

Three 20-something Seattle-ites, Sarah Stuteville, Alex Stonehill and Jessica Partnow, have decided to skip the coffee-fetching internship positions and go straight into the journalism profession: by raising funds to report on under-covered stories around the world. They present an exciting new business model to future journalists and storytellers. How do they get paid? What are the copyright issues? How do they persuade established news organizations to acquire their content? How do they manage logistics on the ground in far-flung places? What are the best tools for this kind of work? How do you report for print, radio, and online all at the same time?

Here are links to the latest work from the Common Language Project:

http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/eastafrica.php 
(general multimedia portal to all of their recent East Africa reporting)

http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/video/Stoneville_TroubledWaters.php
(multimedia story about the shrinking of Lake Victoria--note audio beneath video window)

http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/articles/Stuteville_Kibera.php
(multimedia story about water issues in Nairobi slum--audio beneath video window)

http://www.clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2007/audio/Partnow_Duwamish.php
(recent award winning local radio series on The Duwamish)