The CLP believes that a journalist's first duty is to educate, and that media education is the key to fostering a diverse media landscape and encouraging informed and engaged global media consumers. We offer digital news literacy and multimedia journalism production opportunities for young people in the Puget Sound region through our work at the University of Washington's Department of Communication and through our Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative.

CLP @ UW

The Common Language Project is housed at the University of Washington's Department of Communication in an innovative partnership between higher education and nonprofit journalism. Through this collaboration the CLP offers a quarterly Entrepreneurial Journalism course where students are given the opportunity to produce in-depth multimedia reporting projects for Next Door Media, an award-winning network of neighborhood blogs.

The CLP also offers quarterly journalism and digital media workshops for UW students and the community, provides and coordinates internship and independent study opportunities for students and functions as an on-campus resource to students and faculty interested in digital media, nonprofit and entrepreneurial journalism. Read more in this blog post from Department Chair David Domke.

In addition, CLP cofounders Jessica Partnow, Alex Stonehill and Sarah Stuteville are currently Multimedia Storytellers in Residence at the Master of Communication in Digital Media program where they offer courses in online storytelling and function as editors for Flip the Media, the program's blog on the digital media revolution.

Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative

Young people are born into a media-saturated world--certainly in the United States, but globally as well--that is innovating at light speed, yet they are rarely given the conceptual and hands-on tools to understand and navigate today’s new media landscape. Digital and media literacy are an ideal framework for providing students with the 21st century life skills they need: critical thinking, self-expression, technological fluency and global awareness. The Seattle region is a leader in technology, media, and online journalism, and the moment is right for this city to emerge as a leader in the increasingly vital field of digital media literacy.

In response to this moment the Common Language Project, the University of Washington's Department of Communication and Master of Communication in Digital Media have partnered to create the Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative.

The Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative will send journalists and media makers into schools and youth programs with an emphasis on underserved communities.  Instructors--drawn from our region’s diverse community of media makers--will offer a series of interactive, highly visual presentations exploring online privacy, the role of journalism in our democracy, how to find quality information online, and international media coverage.  

The program is capped by a weeklong intensive Summer Institute hosted by the University of Washington and administered by the Common Language Project.  The Institute will offer a crash course in audio and video production, web tools such as blogging and online writing, and basic media editing software. Local storytellers and educators will help participants produce thoughtful multimedia projects of relevance to their lives and communities. Their projects will be featured on PugetSoundOff.org.

For more on the Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative visit: www.seattledigitalliteracy.org or email initiative director Sarah Stuteville at sarah@clpmag.org.