Biography
Ms. Myrtle Jones is an Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Print Media. As a Principal Investigator on the Middle College project she piloted preliminary research, “Is Teen Media Industry interest impacted by exposure to virtual reality environments?” The study was conducted with 10th graders at Global Media High School Students in Rochester, New York, from January through June of 2008.
Currently, a Doctoral student at Teachers College in Anthropology and Education, Ms. Jones’ summer 2009 was an ethnography on the role of information communication technology in the lives of Black Parents and Caregivers in Harlem.
Ms. Jones began her online career in 1990 researching show information for the Oprah Winfrey Show, where she participated in the development of their audience database.
Following graduate research on the digital distribution of intellectual property at New York University, Ms. Jones focused her career on the digital distribution of content. Her experience includes Publicity Management at Voyager Publishing, pioneers in the new media industry and the first to place book content on floppy disk.
She served as Book Publishing Product Manager at Muze, Inc where she consulted for such companies as Amazon.com, Borders, and American Bookseller Association. While at Muze she co-wrote the industry article “Brave New World of Book Data” with Trev Huxley, which appeared in the 1999 issue of Publishing News (UK).
Ms. Jones experience also spans newspaper distribution, both domestically and internationally for the firms Al-Ahram, the largest book, magazine and newspaper distributor in the Middle East, and Newsday.
Prior to her return to academia, Ms. Jones served as the first Online Director at The Journal News, a suburban New York Gannett newspaper. At The Journal News she oversaw the operation of the digital distribution, sales and marketing of all content and consulted on internal web initiatives.
Ms. Jones has been engaged in strategic consulting for a number of Internet and media companies, including Urban Box Office Network, Black Enterprise Magazine, Shade Magazine, Nia Online and Edutech.
Ms. Jones is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, former volunteer for the Women’s Venture fund, mentor at PS 175 in Harlem, and served two terms as a Judge for the New York City Commission on Women’s Issues Small Business Award contest.
