1st Edition
The Media and Financial Crises Comparative and Historical Perspectives
The Media and Financial Crises provides unique insights into the debate on the role of the media in the global financial crisis. Coverage is inter-disciplinary, with contributions from media studies, political economy and journalists themselves. It features a wide range of countries, including the USA, UK, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Australia, and a completely new history of financial crises in the British press over 150 years.
Editors Steve Schifferes and Richard Roberts have assembled an expert set of contributors, including Joseph E Stiglitz and Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times. The role of the media has been central in shaping our response to the financial crisis. Examining its performance in comparative and historical perspectives is crucial to ensuring that the media does a better job next time.
The book has five distinct parts:
- The Banking Crisis and the Media
- The Euro-Crisis and the Media
- Challenges for the Media
- The Lessons of History
- Media Messengers Under Interrogation
The Media and Financial Crises offers broad and coherent coverage, making it ideal for both students and scholars of financial journalism, journalism studies, media studies, and media and economic history.
Editors’ Introduction STEVE SCHIFFERES and RICHARD ROBERTS Overview: Soothsayers of Doom? LIONEL BARBER PART I The Banking Crisis and the Media 1. Willful Blindness: The Media's Power Problem DEAN STARKMAN 2. Why the Media Got It Right CHRIS ROUSH 3. The US Media and the 2009 Stimulus Package ANYA SCHIFFRIN 4. The British Media and the ‘First Crisis of Globalization’ STEVE SCHIFFERES and SOPHIE KNOWLES 5. From Wall Street to Main Street: Australian Finance and Business Journalism and the Crisis MICHAEL BROMLEY PART II The Euro-Crisis and the Media 6. The Irish Press, Politicians, and the Celtic Tiger Economy MARK O’BRIEN 7. The Spanish Press: No Illusions ÁNGEL ARRESE 8. European Media Views of the Greek Crisis STYLIANOS PAPATHANASSOPOULOS PART III Challenges for the Media 9. What Are Financial Journalists For? DAMIAN TAMBINI 10. The Media and the Crisis: An Information Theoretic Approach JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ 11.Why the Public Doesn’t Trust the Business Press STEVE SCHIFFERES 12. The Mediation of Financial Information Flows: Traders, Analysts, Journalists PETER A. THOMPSON 13. Paying for Crisis News: The Dilemmas of News Organizations GERBEN BAKKER PART IV The Lessons of History 14. Financial Crises and the Birth of the Financial Press, 1825–1880 JAMES TAYLOR 15. Boom, Crisis, Bust: Speculators, Promoters, and City Journalists, 1880–1914 JAMES NYE 16. ‘Run on the Bank’: Covering the 1914 Financial Crisis RICHARD ROBERTS 17. The Pound and the Press, 1919–1972 RICHARD ROBERTS 18. ‘Goodbye, Great Britain’? The Press, the Treasury, and the1976 IMF Crisis DUNCAN NEEDHAM PART V Media Messengers Under Interrogation 19 UK Financial Journalists Quizzed by MPs EDITED BY JEFF HULBERT
Biography
Steve Schifferes is Marjorie Deane Professor of Financial Journalism at City University London. He covered the financial crisis for BBC News.
Richard Roberts is professor at the Institute of Contemporary British History, King’s College London. Publications include studies of HSBC, Schroders, the City, Wall Street, Bank of England and Equitable Life.
"This elegantly conceived and meticulously executed collection scores a palpable double hit: deepening our understanding of financial crises and transforming our knowledge of financial journalism. Above all it marks a historiographical step-change through its sophisticated reading across the last two centuries of that elusive but symbiotic relationship between the ‘actors’ (whether individuals or markets) and their interpreters in the media. To anyone seriously interested in financial matters, this is a mandatory text."
David Kynaston, professional historian and author of The Financial Times: A Centenary History
"This is a cogent and multidimensional examination of business and financial reporting during times of economic crises and commercial fiascos. It provides insightful and integrated analysis of the roles, quandaries and performance of media during economic shocks across the past two centuries and is a compelling appraisal of how media cover and influence economic, financial, and commercial activities and public responses."
Robert G. Picard, Reuters Institute, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford
"The media and the financial sectors are both criticised for being over-powerful and lacking public accountability. This collection of essays - from some of the most knowledgeable academics with experience of both fields - tackles that issue head-on and is essential reading for anyone interested in the role and effectiveness of business journalism."
Richard Sambrook, Professor of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Journalism, Cardiff University
