Newsday Anchor Faith Jessie talks about turning her passion for creativity into a news career
Jessie: "It’s been a lot from politics, to health, we’ve done some fun things to do and we’ve been doing a whole lot on Newsday TV"
Faith Jessie began gaining an interest in journalism through the love of creativity. She was given a SONY camcorder by her mother when she was a kid. When she was in middle school, Jessie decided to use videos of her classmates that were doing slideshows. “Video creation was my number one love and then I realized that OMG there is this career called broadcast journalism where I can take my love for creating video and create videos that impact folks’ lives,” says Jessie when she discovered Journalism.
She began her journey by attending the University of Southern California for a Bachelor’s in journalism. During her time at USC, was the founder of the school’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Jessie would take part in ATVN, a student-run TV station at USC. She started off working at the assignment desk before transitioning to being an MMJ Reporter, where she would travel all over Los Angeles to cover stories with other journalists from ABC, CBS, and other major networks. Jessie thought of working in campus media as “fascinating.” It was a phenomenal experience, says Jessie, “It was what really peak my interest in really doing this full-time.”
After graduating in 2014, Jessie would land reporting and anchor gigs in WICZ Fox 40 in Binghamton, NY, and KSNV-TV, an NBC TV affiliate in Las Vegas before becoming a News Anchor at Newsday in 2020.
When preparing to cover stories, Jessie would go to meetings and reach out to people on social media. She gets the pitches from the reporters and producers that work on the stories. Jessie and her co-workers decided on a newsworthy story based on how it impacts the community, how many people in the community will it impact, and whether it matters to the people who live on Long Island.
She made a positive impact in the Long Island community when covering a story that focuses on student loans, health care, job struggles, and issues surrounding first-time voters. She also talked about her coverage of individuals running for federal and local offices as well as the presidential election were Joe Biden won the President of the United States over Donald Trump.
During the interview, Jessie referenced Newsday reporter and columnist Joye Brown and how she told her that keeping the stories fair is one of the reasons she was able to gain trust. I think as a journalist, especially in the political side of things, we have more responsibility to hold those who are empowered accountable.” said Jessie when talking about speaking to the presidential candidate. “I’m a journalist first so I must ask the tough questions so I’m going to be fair and balanced to you and everyone else."
During her news journalism career, Jessie always maintained her authentic self during every news coverage and on-air segment. She continued her journalistic impact by covering Covid-19 related topics, including the vaccine rollouts and the lack of vaccination amongst the world population. From riding a surfboard, being involved with sports, or interviewing the group of Minorities and Millennials. Jessie had a variety of stories not just on Long Island, but in the New York Community. “It’s been a lot from politics, to health, we’ve done some fun things to do,” said Jessie when discussing her time at Newsday, “We’ve been doing a whole lot on Newsday TV.”
Follow Faith Jessie on Twitter (@FJessieTweets) and Instagram (@fjessie). Also, catch some more of Faith Jessie's stories on https://tv.newsday.com/talent/faith-jessie
My name is Rafique Louison and I am the host of the digital sports show Nothin But Dat Sports Talk. I am also a Social Content Creator of Planted Not Buried, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on empowering, educating, and inspiring others through outreach, events, networking, and opportunities. Learn more at www.plantednb.com, https://linktr.ee/plantednb, or follow us on all social media at @PlantedNB