Media Responsibility and Economic Cycles

Media do have some responsibility for economic cycles because they affect public knowledge and all-important public sentiment.

We know media influence in print, as one example. The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator, for instance, tries to gauge the U.S. economy by weighing the balance of sentiment in articles published by fifteen major American newspapers. The Indicator analyzes published stories. They look for key words that indicate changes in economic sentiment.

Journalism schools do not teach enough economics. If they have any real economic study at all. Because that would entail a balance of conservative as well as liberal thinking on the subject. The results of the work of their graduates show a deficiency.

There are about 50,000 newspaper journalists in the U.S., with thousands of published articles daily, Economics are integral to the news, particularly finance and its relation to politics.

Unfortunately, schools do not teach news balance. Thus, journalists do not know enough to screen what has worked and not worked economically in the past. Or to avoid passing along political nonsense without critical oversight.