Economic news reporting biased towards the rich

Started by Hydra009, April 25, 2021, 02:01:19 PM

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Hydra009

QuoteMajor newspapers in the U.S. largely ignore economic signals most relevant to the welfare of lower- and middle-income households, according to new research, a dynamic that raises fundamental concerns about whether citizens are getting the information they need to accurately gauge how the economy is working for them.

In an article published April 12 in American Political Science Review, researchers found evidence that economics reporting “strongly and disproportionately” tracks the fortunes of the country’s richest households, likely because newspapers focus their coverage disproportionately on aggregate measures of economic performance, using data that, while plentiful, doesn’t track the financial fortunes of the vast majority of Americans.

Economics coverage with a positive tone was correlated with growth in the incomes of the top 20% of earners, the researchers found, but wasn’t linked to growth for earners in lower quintiles.

The result of that skewed focus could be an electorate that can’t effectively asses what economic performance means for them or how implemented policies align with their interests.

“To the extent that voters’ perceptions are shaped by the media…the ‘economy’ on which most voters have been voting has, in an important sense, not been theirs,” the researchers wrote.
Bottom line: when the TV or news site says that the stock market is up or that "the economy" is doing better, ask yourself, "better for whom?"

Sources: https://academictimes.com/economic-news-reporting-suffers-from-bias-toward-richest-americans/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/whose-news-classbiased-economic-reporting-in-the-united-states/1D4BE72D76707973491EB36C36FE9D0B


Cassia

The stock market is a casino where you can bet on the economy of the future. It bears little resemblance to the economy right now. Since a very small percentage of the population owns most of the public corporations...the news is certainly slanted towards them. The typical US consumer is slowly diminishing into merely 'small potatoes' in the growing global market scene.

Media consumers seem to have a hardcore fascination of the wealthy. I guess because people think of they emulate them they too will become wealthy. It will rub off on them or something. Do I really need to know what a Kardashian thinks about something the president says?

drunkenshoe

Quote from: Cassia on April 25, 2021, 06:02:52 PM
...Media consumers seem to have a hardcore fascination of the wealthy. I guess because people think of they emulate them they too will become wealthy. It will rub off on them or something. Do I really need to know what a Kardashian thinks about something the president says?[/color]

I was thinking the same thing reading the OP. Speaking of Kardashians, if memoery serves right one thos epeople tweeted something negative about snapchat and caused it to lose several points just like that in a day? 

People always want to read about rich people. While we'd all like to think that we live in a completely different society after monarchies abolished and modern states are founded, I think this has early modern historical connections too. Public figures are almnost always rich people, they are entitled, live in a zomne called 'high' society who/which are the equivelant of aristocracy or even royalty in some sense. People loved to read about them 300 years ago and they still do. And interestingly enough, ironically, that 'literature' -the first examples of Secret History- fueled French Revolutions too, lol.
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

SGOS

The stock market is always big news.  It's a safe bet.  Its factual for the most part, and just reading about how good it is makes people feel better.  You can't go wrong announcing the Dow Jones at the end of the day.  There are excellent comments in this thread, I just didn't want to repeat them.