Julie Jones is an award winning television journalist and digital media scholar. Julie began her photojournalism career at KIVA-TV in Farmington, New Mexico as a general news photographer in 1982. Twenty-years later, she left her job as special projects producer and photojournalist at ABC15 in Phoenix to pursue her doctorate degree. In the years between, Julie’s work earned numerous Rocky Mountain Emmys, National Press Photographers Association, and Arizona Press Club awards. In addition, she was twice she was NPPA’s region 10 Photographer of the Year twice, earned three Emmys for Photojournalistic Enterprise and was Arizona Press Club’s Photographer of the Year. While working for ABC15 and KPNX in Phoenix, Julie was an essential member of two special projects units, grew as a producer as well as a photographer, did investigative work, and brought five documentaries to air.
None of these accomplishments could have been achieved without the NPPA Television Video Workshop.
As a green photographer, Julie attended the 1982 Workshop as a shooting participant. This experience was invaluable to Julie’s photojournalism skills, ethics, and sensibility. She still considers Darrell Barton and Bob Brandon as pivotal mentors in her career and in her life. Ten years after attending as a participant, Julie had the honor to return to the Workshop as a faculty member.
In 2001, Julie earned her Master’s degree from the Cronkite School of Journalism. Two years later she began her doctoral work at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Julie’s doctoral work has centered on citizen producers and how this phenomenon affects traditional news media. As such, Julie is still working on the principles she learned at the workshop to investigate videos posted on sites such as YouTube and iFilms and how the creation of these works reinforce an aspect of the producer’ self-concept. This work has a connection to understanding the new visual literacy skills both journalists and audiences will need in a new world of amateur video being posted in real time. Julie will complete her dissertation work in 2008.