Is media making the recession worse? What do you think?

[Omega_7000]

The media - they didn't cause the banking crisis but they have surely capitalized on it, dramatized it, chronically reported every devastating development and turned a serious but contained fire into a wildfire. I think the media, maybe newspapers in particular, are driving consumer fear that is a significant contributor to our current recession.

as soon as I pick up the local newspaper.....here are some headlines from Sunday's newspaper,

- Returning to lessons of the great depression
- Huge cuts likely in Governor's plan
- Unfinished homes worry neighbors
- How will we know when the economy hits bottom?
- No free passes in a deep economic downturn
- Recovery to 'take time' despite hopeful signs
- Job scarcity creating long-distance couples
- Digging out of a $3.4 billion budget hole
- Revealed: Who got AIG aid money
- Reading the signs of the bear and bull

- And then we read this headline:
Obama: Have "confidence"

Obama's right. If we can have confidence, then people will begin to spend more, and the economy will benefit. But as long as the media continue to create and foster an atmosphere of fear, who's gonna feel like spending?

Even if you still have your job and are doing fine, we keep hearing about how bad the economy is, and then as a shopper you start to question your own buying habits. Michael Moore said long ago that we're manipulated by fear, generated by the media. I have never felt that truth more than I feel it now. Fear sells newspapers. But what else does it accomplish?

What do you think: Did the media have a part to play in making the economy worse than it actually was?

 

[dannyjjang]

I mean we get all of our information from the media..
so the answer is yes.

 

[albino smurf]

I think the 24/7 nature of 'news' is really messing things up. Most of what passes for news is commentary these days and the lack of differentiation between the two is not good.

 

[Omega_7000]

I think the 24/7 nature of 'news' is really messing things up. Most of what passes for news is commentary these days and the lack of differentiation between the two is not good.

I agree... and the media seems to be getting further away from the actual facts by reporting their own spiced up version of the news. Always adding drama and overblowing everything out of proportions.

 

[Wakenslam]

Of course. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Has anyone noticed how the media has gone from "Housing Bust" to "Health Care?" New homes (and resales) in my area are selling VERY quickly right now, partly because people aren't getting their daily brainwashing by the media about how home prices have fallen, etc....

 

[mary fierce]

The article titles sampled by the OP is a bit distorted. One also sees regularly in the media recently articles quoting the Fed chairman or the Treasury Secretary suggesting that the recession is over. An article I see today suggested home prices have stabilized and consumer confidence is increasing. So I think there's more balance than this thread presents, though the point is a reasonable one that the economy is based on confidence and that confidence is in part determined by the news.

 

[Omega_7000]

The article titles sampled by the OP is a bit distorted. One also sees regularly in the media recently articles quoting the Fed chairman or the Treasury Secretary suggesting that the recession is over. An article I see today suggested home prices have stabilized and consumer confidence is increasing. So I think there's more balance than this thread presents, though the point is a reasonable one that the economy is based on confidence and that confidence is in part determined by the news.

The article titles were as is from local newspapers. I can't scan and post them as proof because I don't have the time.

Its only now that the media is forced to report with a little optimism after the recent stock rallies and if things get better they will make a complete 180 by reporting everything is perfect and hailing Obama as a hero (everyone except Fox that is)

The point is that when things went bad they made it worse by adding fuel to fire and helping it to spiral out of control. The over dramatic knee jerk reporting is what needs to stop...

 

[Omega_7000]

The Stock Market is a joke. When all any one could talk about was Health Care the stock market took off because all the news organizations talking heads were on a 24/7 Health Care Reform/Town Hall/TeaBagger high. Blah, blah and blah.
Now just watching the morning shows and the nightly shows all they can talk about is jobs, jobs and the economy and how awful it is and then what happens to the stock market, everyone gets cold feet and it tanks. If the networks would shut up about for say 3 or 4 days I would lay my life on it, magically it would go back up.
I mean there was no major news today that hasn't been known for months released today just the media telling everyone how bad everything is. Talk about HCR or Afganistan for the newxt week and by next Friday we would be at 10,000 again.
Somebody needs to put a shoe into the media's piehole for a few weeks and people will stop panicking!

 

[El Diablo]

Most stock transfers are not made by people sitting in front of a TV watching CNN but by institutional investment pros looking at things like durable goods orders, labor conditions in Asian countries, long range agriculture reports, anticipated needs for precious minerals, and lots of other things most of us never hear anything about. The notion that the stock market follows the headlines is simply absurd.

 

[Omega_7000]

Most stock transfers are not made by people sitting in front of a TV watching CNN but by institutional investment pros looking at things like durable goods orders, labor conditions in Asian countries, long range agriculture reports, anticipated needs for precious minerals, and lots of other things most of us never hear anything about. The notion that the stock market follows the headlines is simply absurd.

Well its not completely dependent on the news but it does play a major role. It plays a major role in the sense that it makes the situation worse by declaring doomsday when the stock market has a down day...
And all the everyday common folk keep watching these depressing fu*ks spew crap all day to sell their channels thus making the situation worse by scaring the crap out of the population.

 

[samej07]

I think the modern media makes everything worse....or I guess a better choice of words for me would be that they blow everything out of proportion. Im not saying that things would not have got bad anyway, but I think how the media covers things tends to scare people, causing them to react in an extreme way. Media outlets are more interested in making a huge story than in giving people the info they need in a realistic, rational, COMMON SENSE way.