Office: Gaylord Hall 3517
Email: juliejones@ou.edu
Education:
PhD, University of Minnesota
MA, Arizona State University
Julie Jones is a lecturer at Gaylord College, co-founder of OUStormCrowd, national chair for the National Press Photographers Association News Video Workshop, and, in 2012, was one of ten professors nationwide named as Kappa Alpha Theta’s Outstanding Faculty. Jones earned her doctorate at University of Minnesota in 2010.
A former television photojournalist and producer, Jones brings a wealth of professional experiences to her academic work. Her research is focused on the participatory nature of online news and visual platforms. Her work has been published in New Media and Society, ACM publications, PBS MediaShift, and she is an active member of AEJMC’s Communication Technology division.
In 2011, Jones and her Gaylord colleague John Schmeltzer received an AEJMC/Knight News Bridge grant to develop their idea on how mobile tools, like smartphones, could be used for news reporting during breaking news events. With the help of Weather Decision Technologies, Jones and Schmeltzer developed the first version of OUStormCrowd and the accompanying mobile reporting class. Gaylord journalism and meteorology students used iPod Touches with Sennheiser microphones to report on weather events from the field and to post their reports as close to real time as possible. On Friday April 13th, the mobile reporting students covered an EF1 tornado that touched down in numerous locations in Norman. Their reports beat all news organizations to “air.”
In 2012, Jones and Schmeltzer partnered with the OU Office of Technology Development to bring OUStormCrowd closer to a proprietary product. The 2013 mobile reporting class also gained a partner – The Purcell Register. The 16 students are using mobile technology to report on local high school sports and community events as well as weather.
In 2013, Jones lead the 53rd National Press Photographers Association’s News Video Workshop. The “workshop” has been held annually on the University of Oklahoma campus since beloved film professor Ned Hockman brought the conference to OU in 1964. Video journalists from around the world attend the News Video Workshop to gain and hone videos storytelling skills to be used under deadline pressures. Jones is honored to keep professor Hockman’s vision strong and at OU.
Dr. Jones is the recipient of the 2018 Owen Kulemeka Teacher of the Year Award
