This Q&A was conducted in the fall of 2022.
Jessica Jaglois is an investigative reporter based in Memphis Tennessee, working for WLBT news, an NBC affiliate. A graduate of New York University, Jessica has done her share of hard work to achieve her career goals. She has held various jobs in different parts of the country, including one for an ABC news station in Atlanta, Georgia. After getting engaged, she and her husband moved to Memphis Tennessee, where she began the investigative unit for the NBC affiliate she works for today
Throughout all your time through these places as a journalist, has there been a standing ethical standpoint that you've always stood by?
I would say that most places have the same issues. As far as ethically, I try to stay as objective as possible. The way I do that is I understand my own beliefs and I either try to challenge them or acknowledge the way I feel and set it aside. So compartmentalize it as much as I can. I think that it's important for journalists to try to be objective, but also critical thinkers. So being objective doesn't mean you just let somebody say whatever they want. It's not being a critical thinker and, you know, challenging somebody. But knowing that everyone has the right to their own opinion. and all my job is, is to expose that opinion and the pros and cons of it. Because every opinion, including my own, has a pro and a con to It.
As an investigative reporter do you feel like there's more challenges ethically with what you do as an investigative reporter?
An investigative reporter, I would say that your goal is different. As a general assignment reporter, your goal is to explain the who, what, where, when, and why. As an investigative journalist, your job is to explain the how. How did we get here, and then from there, there's a whole new set of who, what, where, when, and why that you have to answer. So investigative journalism is just more in depth and requires more research and accountability and a lot I think can be harder in some ways, but easier in other ways.
I wanted to briefly ask you about social media and kind of how, it's a long-standing debate of how good and bad social media is. I understand as a journalist, not putting your biases or your opinion out there because they might reflect badly on you...Do you feel like social media has been good for journalists, do you think its been bad for journalists? What do you... what is just your opinion on social media for journalists?
A: I think it's good and bad. I teach my students 'cause I taught last year at the University of Memphis, and I say that the only absolutes are there aren't any. It's the only absolute. There’s nothing that’s all good and there’s nothing that’s all bad. And so social media has its pros and social media has its cons. Social media allows me to connect with people, allows me to share my stories. It allows me to hear diversified voices, find people, find stories. I mean, it is a huge asset as a journalist. On the flip side of it, you have to be extremely savvy and again, very critical of the information you're receiving and verify absolutely everything.
As a journalist yourself, how do you see the future of journalism? How do you see future journalists trying to handle social media or just the new world in general?
I mean that's the $1,000,000 question everyone has. I think everyone has a theory. I think that journalism is it's always struggled with opinion journalism and getting kind of lumped in together for sure. I think that as far as the future of journalism, I think we've got people like smart young people that can really stand for something but in a way that is, Like I mean, I always tell, I ask my students, do you like to be told how to feel about something? So I'll ask you, do you like to be told how you should feel about something?
Me personally I don't.
And so most people are like that right, like the example I use is if someone tells you to relax while you're hyped up, usually does the opposite. The job as a journalist isn't to tell someone how they should feel about something, it's to give them the facts and to let them make up their own minds. I think that journalists, as they mature, will understand that. They understand that, I think that younger people have much more of like they have a good perspective on the world. They understand diverse voices, and that means diversity in opinion and diversity and who they connect with and how. And so I think that the future of journalism both excites me and also it does worry me that I feel like there are a lot of journalists that get into the industry and make it all about themselves. I think that there's a lot of potential for the future of journalism. I do want journalists to not make it about themselves 'cause it's not. It's about the story, it's about the person, about the issue.
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