Coverage of the Financial CrisisAndrew Catalano,

Veronica Houk, Cecilia Kohler,

Elizabeth Ritter, Martin Weiss

Introduction

Business Journalism: “tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the economic changes that take place in a society.”

NBC Nightly News

Videos March 13, 2007(0:29-1:32):

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/tvn-video-view.pl?RC=861306

October 10, 2008 (0:00-1:05) http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.proxy.lib.umich.edu/tvn-video-view.pl?RC=920959

October 7, 2010 (2:40-3:50): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_CcGdmnoZE&NR=

Headline: “Through the Roof: Real Estate Prices Climbing to Record Levels”; May 31, 2005

Remarks on housing bubble; likens to 90s internet bubble; refers to Alan Greenspan’s term (“froth”) - appeal to expert to confirm bubble exists

Personal account: single, female schoolteacher, “There's no guarantees in life, but I've never lost money. I've always made money. The least I've made on a property has been $20,000”

Economist’s perspective: Yale professor, Robert Schiller defines bubble: “time when people stretch to pay more than they

otherwise would because they have grand expectations for future price increases”

reveals possible negative outcome of bubble: “the problem is that when you have this extraordinary fixation of national attention on a market, it can cause a spiking of the market and then a reversal”

More words of caution from economist Mark Zandi: “problem if house prices indeed go flat or begin to decline”

End on personal, optimistic note: interviewee not worried, “confident she can build her nest egg before any bubble springs a leak.”

Headline: “Hard Times: A Nightly News Survival Guide”; January 21, 2008

Reasons for the Economy’s troubles Souring oil prices; inflation on costs of groceries Cheap mortgages that convinced anyone they could buy a

home “The Friendly’s” as an example of your everyday consumer Economy will pull through thanks to foreign consumers, and

the weak dollar, coming over to buy American.

Headline: August 20, 2010 “Many Americans dipping into 401(k) for money”

Gives an account of two people who were forced to dip into their 401(k) to pay bills     

People have been using 401(k)s to avoid foreclosure or eviction, paying for college, and buying homes.    

Explains the penalties of a “hardship withdrawal” from your 401(k) which were having to pay taxes on the money and also a 10% penalty.     

While explaining hardship withdrawals, it simply states the negative aspects as opposed to a potential solution or alternative.

General Findings for After NBC focused more on episodic framing- most of the stories found were focused on individuals or isolated groups of people. NBC did not give many examples of how to fix their current economic situations. More special interest stories instead of informative stories

Closing Remarks

Business Journalism: “tracks, records, analyzes, and interprets the economic changes that take place in a society.”