Miami to Macon: Jonathan Perez talks his path and modern journalism
By Ryan Weaver
For most sports journalists, the decision to stop playing and start reporting is one brought on by multitude of reasons. Those can be injuries, age or just coming to terms that you might not have the talent to compete at the college or professional level. But the love and passion don’t ever leave.
“I always liked sports…wanted to be a baseball player like most kids…and realized that’s not going to happen. You have to kind of make an adjustment,” Jonathan Perez said. “I just wanted to still be around the game, still be around sports. And I realized that journalism was one of the ways I could do that just going out and still watching teams play and talking to the players and the coaches.”
Perez works at 13WMAZ as one of their sports journalists, joining in 2016 after spending time at WTVJ in his hometown of Miami, Florida. Although he grew up in Hurricane territory he ended up a Gator after graduating from the University of Florida.
At Florida, he got a well rounded journalism background that he feels is needed for modern journalism. The university offered a variety of what he called “tracks” and each “track” has a specific focus. There are some “basic reporting” classes that make sure everyone knows how to field questions or write journalistically.
He started out as a writer, getting his “feet wet” as a local beat reporter of sorts for local sports but would eventually transition into TV and being on camera.
“I don’t know it was just something about TV that really just caught my eye…[there was] something different about TV,” Perez said. “You can kind of tell stories differently you can kind of show them rather than just tell and you can kind of give a video and take someone…inside the story by actually watching and kind of seeing it maybe from the interviewees eyes.”
Even though he gone into a primarily visual field with TV, Perez still stresses the importance of journalists liking and being able to write.
“You got to be able to write. If you can’t write it’s something you’ve got to work on because writing is in everything we do, even for TV. We write all our scripts. We write all our stories and our packages,” he said. “It all begins with writing. And if you’re a good writer chances are, you’re going to be a good storyteller.”
Aside from writing, Perez said that modern journalists need to know how to navigate social media and be able to communicate and be curious. He specifically noted that in sports it’s the journalist’s job to ask the hard questions that the coach or player may not want asked.
He went on to add that sports journalists have to “realize that [they] are not a fan anymore” and went further to say that both sports and news need to be “objective” and “unbiased” making sure that those hard questions come before your own thoughts and biases.
Being able to get to that level of objectivity and even knowing what one wants to do or cover takes time. Time and experience. These are things that only come with practice and practical application of the skills taught in journalism school.
“Just immerse yourself as much as you can. Find opportunities to get involved and don’t be afraid to try something new,” Perez said. “I mean a lot of times when we’re in college where we have our mind set on this one thing. ‘I want to be on camera.’ And then you go on camera and don’t really like that.”
“And so, you have to try to find out what you like and what you don’t like and what you’re good at. And the only way you can do that is by trying different things. So just getting involved in as much things as you can whether it’s on camera, off camera, writing photography whatever it is.”
Perez did just this. He started in print then moved into audio and video by working at the student-run broadcast station. His first spot was on radio, then got involved with the newscasts put on and eventually got a sports anchor position.
These “extracurricular activities,” as Perez called them, combined with the internships he worked gave him the connections and networking that he said are “crucial” to getting in the door as a journalist.
“It’s so important because sometimes it’s not a matter of what you know, I mean that’s tremendous in itself, but sometimes it’s also just who you know,” Perez said. “Because if you interned with someone and they…work with someone it’s a matter of just saying ‘Hey you know what this guy’s a really hard worker’ they’re able to put that recommendation in.”
Networking also gives the opportunity to meet mentors that will help you along. Perez said that this was the case for him when he moved to Macon and started work at 13WMAZ, where he said he faced the challenge of having to settle with quickly getting caught up with the local sports landscape and start reporting.
“Luckily for me I’ve had a great team over [at 13WMAZ]. Frank Malloy and Marvin James they’ve been great mentors and great friends and they’ve really been helping me throughout the process,” he said.
Perez added that he thought of Malloy and James as role models with their work ethic and interaction with the Middle Georgia community. He also sees Ernie Johnson of TNT as an inspiration, calling him the “G.O.A.T” of broadcasters. He specifically mentioned Johnson’s route from 13 WMAZ as a news anchor to covering the NBA and MLB on the national stage, giving him a close example that moving from local to national coverage can be achieved.
Although Perez has enjoyed the work he’s done covering professional sports like the Miami Marlins, Dolphins and Heat or collegiately covering the University of Georgia with their recent success, he said his work locally covering high school sports is most memorable.
“I’ve been fortunate to cover a lot of teams in the area and just kind of see…how they practice and just kind of show their highlights because at the end of day it’s all about the kids,” he said. “We do all these highlights and stuff for the kids and to get them some love for all the hard work that they’ve done Monday through Thursday and then Friday is their time to show out.”
