heef ([info]heef) wrote,
@ 2008-11-07 16:20:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Reporting the important news
One thing I very much wish right now is that the major newspapers, television networks, etc. would stop reporting the daily swings of the DJIA as major news. The Dow is going to be swinging wildly for some time, and what really matters are the stories that cause the long-term trends, the solution to (or continuing difficulty of) the credit crisis, unemployment, global market trends, etc.

It's not just a matter of my personal annoyance... I think that the daily movement of the Dow is causing people more distress than it should right now. That sort of thing is important to day traders and mutual/hedge fund managers, bond traders... but not the people who get their news from CNN, not people who are retiring anything over a year from now, and not the corporations and banks who are making investments on month-and-year-long trends.

(6 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]g_me
2008-11-07 10:56 pm UTC (link)
amen to that.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]firaela
2008-11-08 02:25 am UTC (link)
Agreed.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]shimonrura
2008-11-08 03:12 pm UTC (link)
I'm tempted to agree, but isn't it the job of the news to report unusual events? If you look to CNN as a significant source of information on your financial situation, you're choosing to receive information that's easily understood, not likely to be relevant in the long term, and presented in a way that's expertly designed to elicit emotional response.

This is because news is entertainment. The idea that watching the news helps you stay informed is the key to justifying this entertainment intake for many people. But the news by definition highlights unlikely things. It might make you worry that pedophiles are everywhere, or that more people are attacked by sharks in the ocean that drown. Chances are that the information you need to live a happy life is mostly stuff that other people have discovered long ago, or isn't easy to describe, or is interesting only to you and your family.

The real problem is that people give the news a special place in their lives and treat it as a source of actionable information. But the news has a selection bias that makes it inappropriate for that kind of information. So I recommend ignoring it.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]heef
2008-11-09 02:17 am UTC (link)
Well, I disagree that massive swings of the stock market are at all unusual today. And a big part of my objection to the trend is your definition of news as entertainment - their desire to make it so is precisely what takes the trivial and sensationalizes it.

Whether or not I ignore it doesn't have and bearing on whether or not it's irresponsible journalism on their part.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]swagmonkey
2008-11-09 04:11 am UTC (link)
My thoughts on this lean sort of towards what Shimon said. Yes, I think it would be good for the news not to keep harping on stock movements and things that unnecessarily make the country more nervous, BUT... News is a business. To a large extent, they report what people think is important (or at least strive to report what people think is important.) And, frankly, even if the people are dead wrong about it, most of them think that the swings of the Dow or other stock indexes are important. Particularly if they have a lot of money invested, and in most cases even if they don't plan to take it out for 20 more years. An ideal news system might balance for that and report what people ought to know or hear, rather than what people think they need to know, or want to know...but that strategy probably wouldn't earn as much money. And underneath it all, the media are still businesses.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]heef
2008-11-09 06:27 am UTC (link)
/disagree

If the media chose to tell people that the swings of the Dow weren't that important these days, they could do so. And they could change what people think is important by an accorate portrayal of that fact. But they don't.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(6 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…