Sarah Jones is an American multimedia journalist currently working for an NBC affiliate in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois. Prior to that she has worked with BBC World Service, CNN and Al Jazeera America, among others. In South Sudan, Sarah’s work focused on stories that flipped the script on Western reporting from the country, showing that South Sudanese could be the protagonists and heroes of their own stories, not just the victims. I talked to her about why she wanted to report from Juba in particular, and the kinds of stories she was looking for there.
My passion is underreported news. And I’ve been fighting to be deployed to South Sudan for over two years. I found that whenever mainstream media covered South Sudan it was a story of conflict, war and/or malnutrition. And there is always more to a nation and its people than just war. I’ve covered South Sudan remotely but its not the same as being on the ground, and speaking with people and being present. And I wanted to go to the world’s youngest country to tell stories that offered a more comprehensive look.
Ryan Lenora Brown, South Sudan, Reporting Fellow (August 2018)
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