Economic News
Antecedents and Effects

This Element provides a concise review of the existing literature on content, antecedents and consequences of economic news coverage.

Rens Vliegenthart (Author), Alyt Damstra (Author), Mark Boukes (Author), Jeroen Jonkman (Author)

9781108948081, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 June 2021

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.136 kg

This Element provides a concise review of the existing literature on content, antecedents and consequences of economic news coverage. It tests and refines prominent assumptions and hypotheses in this area. Relying on communication science theories such as framing, news values and media dependency theories, we first outline and explain how media cover the economy. Additionally, it demonstrates that coverage has a fundamental impact above and beyond the state of the economy, both on economic perceptions and political attitudes of citizens, as well as on political decision makers and media reputation of a wide variety of organizations.

1. Introduction
2. Content of economic news coverage
3. Causes of variation: journalistic routines in mainstream economic news production
4. Effects of news on economic perceptions
5. Economic news coverage and political attention
6. Tone and its effects on the reputation of firms
7. Learning about economy through new forms of media
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Press & journalism [KNTJ], Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Economics [KC], Politics & government [JP], Communication studies [GTC]