Submitted by Zoe Jones
By Lauren Bannister
As Zoe Jones approached her senior year of high school, she was photographed attending her cousin’s funeral. She had to watch as a nation mourned her family’s loss. Reporters followed her family and asked questions for which she didn’t have answers. Politicians made statements. She felt as though she couldn’t escape her own thoughts and feelings.
To this day, all it takes is a tweet to throw her back into that mindset. Jones’ cousin, Clementa, was one of nine murdered in the 2015 Charleston church shooting at Mother Emanuel Church. A young man walked into a prayer meeting and, while feigning participation among those whose heads were bowed, he pulled out a gun and opened fire on the parishioners. Jones was 17 at the time.
“I think it's important that people use social media to talk about justice,” Jones said. “But it's just so interesting because for the family members, [they feel those emotions for] the rest of their lives.”
The Jones family is reminded of their own loss every time a new incident of police brutality ignites a new social media storm about racial injustice. Emotions ran high last summer in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s deaths, and while many took to social media to release their thoughts and emotions, Jones liberated her own thoughts through writing. One night, while staying in a guest room at her parent’s home in Virginia, her mother encouraged her to channel emotions she had into words. So, while her family slept, Zoe wrote.
“I typed for four hours,” Jones reflected. “Then, I finished it. I looked at it and I was like, ‘this is fine.’”
Jones, 22, then published her article on her personal Substack newsletter, “As We Know It,” without thinking too much about it. She just wanted the weight off her chest. She was not expecting more than her eight newsletter subscribers to see it. She uploaded the post on Medium.com as well when her grandma found the other site too difficult to navigate. It only took three hours for her post to be selected for the race and equality homepage on the site, and traction grew even larger from there.
Her viral article, “My cousin was killed in the Charleston church shootings. Here’s what happens after the cameras leave” eventually caught the attention of an editor at Vox.com.
“This lady from Vox sent me an email and was like, ‘Hey, I really liked your article. I saw it on Alyssa's Twitter, and I really think this would be cool for our first-person essays. If you edit it down a little bit, do you want to publish it?’” Jones said. “I was like, yes. Immediately.”
Alissa Wilkinson, a professor at The King’s College, is also a staff critic for Vox.com. Jones once called her professor, but now sees Wilkinson as more of a mentor. Wilkinson is thrilled when she can help a King’s student find their footing in the always-evolving journalism and media industry.
“Zoe already had a lot of raw talent,” Wilkinson said. “One thing that strikes me about Zoe is how well she pays attention -- to the world, to what's happening in class, to how she's thinking about things -- and then finds a way to express what she sees. I think that's such an important quality in a writer, a reporter, a critic, a filmmaker and more.”
Wilkinson’s role as a mentor to Jones did not end with a retweet and share of an article. The professor helped guide her former student to pursue new opportunities. Wilkinson wanted to see Jones in a role that was more challenging, fulfilling, and that used her talents wisely.
At the time, Jones was a video producer at Newsweek, where she had worked during her senior year as a student at The King's College and after she graduated. While she enjoyed her work as a video producer, Jones also wanted to land bylines as a writer.
Jones attempted to balance working full-time for the media company and her final classes for her degree at King’s, where she studied Media, Culture and the Arts with a film concentration. Inside, she still had a desire to write. Her blog post turned Vox.com article changed her career.
After much deliberation, Jones decided to leave her job at Newsweek and become a free-lance writer. Once she left Newsweek, she received direct messages from potential employers and applied to different jobs to get her name out there.
Jones was initially a writer-at-large for Publishers Weekly and a freelance reporter for CBS News. More recently, she's become a full-time reporter with CBS News. She also writes her own personal newsletter about culture.
Jones says one of her favorite stories she has worked on so far at CBS News involved “a normal day turned into a liveblog where my coworkers and I worked tirelessly with another reporter (Grace) who was actually inside the capitol while it was being stormed and worked until almost 11 pm updating with news as it came in.”
Submitted by Zoe Jones
She has also enjoyed reporting features about black-owned businesses such as this floral studio in Brooklyn and reporting on “really cool authors” such as this piece on Jenny Han. Jones said she continues developing her journalistic skills. “I love interviewing and these stories required multiple interviews.”
You can find Zoe working from her home in Brooklyn with a bookcase of colorful books behind her as she takes on a new chapter of her life in New York City. Her friends, family, and former professors watch to see what comes next.
“I've just been thrilled to see her byline popping up over and over,” Wilkinson commented. “I'm always like, wait -- I know her!”
Lauren Bannister is a senior at The King's College, majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society.
MPJI is based at The King’s College in New York City. MPJI provides education, training and professional development projects for journalists at the high school, undergraduate and professional levels. It is named after the late John McCandlish Phillips, a legendary reporter at The New York Times.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @JMPjournalism and LinkedIn at McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute.