Rick Brewer: What interested you most about becoming a journalist and getting into this field?
AJ Jones: I've always been vaguely interested in journalism. Going back to being a kid, I was the announcements kid when I was in elementary school, and the school paper guy in high school. I went to Southfield A&T, and in high school, the AV Club would tape the varsity football and basketball games, and I would commentate over them. So media has always been something I've been pretty closely exposed to. I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about current events as well. I went to Michigan Dearborn, I graduated with a degree in journalism, and I did a couple internships at WDIV, did a full year at Michigan Public, and now I'm here.
RB: What stories interest you most as a journalist?
AJ: I think there's two types of stories I think are the most fascinating. A lot of what I did in Michigan public, sort of, was general assignment. But a lot of it was very public policy, a lot of stories about how things work, and a lot of stories about things that maybe the viewer, or maybe even me, didn't really know or have a whole heck of a lot of interest in. But the more you look into it, the more fascinating it is.
For example, in Ottawa County, there was a story about a program their county government was doing about farmland preservation. And to make it succinct, it's a program where you give some of the rights to the county government, and you still own, farm, sell it and profit off the land. They also ensured that as industrialization continues and cities encroach on farmland, that your farmland is completely preserved. Reading it the first time, I didn't really know a lot about it. But the more I looked into it, I was like, “Wow, this is like there's so many issues here you wouldn't even consider”.
Sort of to go further from that, I love stories where there's a give and take, where there are multiple interesting perspectives with concerns that are valid. I did a story about short-term rentals in Michigan and a bill that would make it easier for cities to collect tax on them. There was discourse about whether we should have air B&B's in the state, and I talked to a local, a small-town mayor from one of these cities that attract a lot of tourists, and he told me what we can't make any money off these people. They use our public services and our roads, and our taxpayers who live here have to pay for this, and they needed some mechanism to deal with that. I talked to the renter's association about why people want to have Airbnb's, and we don't want to make it difficult, but there's so many interested individuals in a given story that the more people you talk to, the more perspective you get.
I think for the audience, that turns it from just like a story about, “Well, there's a bill in Congress and some people are talking about it and stuff is happening too, right?” to there's actual people who have an actual stake in what's happening. They're very invested in what's happening, and this is their perspective.
RB: What are you excited most about covering here at WCMU?
AJ: Well, in the immediate short term, I am quite excited about the election. Needless to say, it's been a lot. I've always liked election coverage. I minored in political science at Michigan Dearborn, and I have always been super interested in how elections work and how coalitions of people work together to build a campaign that can win or lose.
Going beyond the horse race aspect of it, there's so many crucial issues in this election that we're discussing, things that I haven't seen yet like airtime in the past, stuff like the cost of living. I think now more than ever, the cost of living for like middle class Americans is such a crucial issue, and as are things like immigration, abortion, etcetera. There’s just so many things happening in this election, and I'm really excited to talk to people about why they feel the way they do.
In general, I'd like to do more stories about public policy and about the interplay between governments, private institutions and people, and how things sort of work and how that helps or hurts certain people and groups. These, I think, are important stories to tell. I think this is why people listen to stations like this and NPR in general.
RB: Well, AJ Jones, welcome aboard. We are thrilled to have you here as a part of the WCMU newsroom. Thanks for talking with me.
AJ: Absolutely.
