|
September 2002
On the (Economic Literacy) Campaign Trail
Finding, understanding and telling the story behind the story
Kathy Cobb
Managing Editor
Would the Enron story have been different if reporters had probed beyond
news releases that touted the company's glowing performance? Would public
policy play out differently if reporters took a different tack or talked
to different sources? Would public funding for a new sports stadium be
supported by taxpayers if the hidden costs were uncovered?
These and other questions were discussed in late June in Minneapolis when
about 30 mostly Midwest print and broadcast journalists gathered at the
University of Minnesota to learn more about economics—and ultimately
how to better report business and public policy news.
The two-day workshop, a joint project of the Minnesota Journalism Center
of the University of Minnesota and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis,
was the second of what is becoming an annual event. The program initially
grew out of a session for and about journalists as part of the Economic
Literacy Symposium held at the Minneapolis Fed in spring 1999. In
fall 2000 the first workshop for journalists was held near Washington,
D.C., and the national reporters who attended that program became the
core advisers for the course. (Events of Sept. 11 caused the cancellation
of the fall 2001 program.)
Participants had the opportunity to learn from a few of those advisers.
David Wessel, chief economics correspondent at The Wall Street
Journal, and The Economist's New York Bureau Chief, Matthew
Bishop, led off the program with what they've learned over years of experience.
Wessel gave journalists some nuts and bolts about writing business and
public policy stories: where to find data and information, developing
sources and, above all, understanding economists. “It's our job to
explain what economists think,” Wessel said. He shared his list of
rules to write by, including the importance of getting comfortable handling
numbers. “It's hard to write about business and economics if you're
afraid of numbers,” he said. Allowing that reporters can always tell
different stories about the same event, Wessel reminded participants that
“we owe readers our best judgment. ...”
Bishop walked participants through The Economist's reporting of
the Enron story, admitting that, overall, reporters could have done a
better job on Enron. He pointed out that if reporters had dug a little
deeper, Enron's shaky position would have been apparent far sooner. He
suggested that reporters always need to ask, “What's the hidden cost?”
And he reminded participants: “You need to know if you're getting
smoke and mirrors” in an interview.
But before reporters can get to the bottom of a story, they need to have
a grasp of basic economic principles, said Arthur Rolnick, Minneapolis
Fed senior vice president and director of Research. He shared the following
eight principles of economics that reporters need to keep in mind:
-
On average, people behave in their own best interest.
-
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
-
The cost of something is what you give up to get it.
-
A country's standard of living depends on its ability to produce
goods and services.
-
Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity.
-
Trade can make everyone better off.
-
Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes.
-
Money causes inflation.
Keynote speaker Alan Blinder focused on how a reporter can twist a story
either unwittingly or intentionally. Blinder, now professor of macroeconomics
and monetary policy economics at Princeton University, was vice chairman
of the Federal Reserve Board and former chairman of the President's Council
of Economic Advisers in the 1990s. He talked via satellite about his experiences
with the media during his time in Washington. “The selection and
interpretation of stories are the inevitable role of the media,”
said Blinder, adding that “even when reporters are scrupulous in
reporting, they often can alter the policy outcome.” Blinder said
leaking stories to the media is a way of life in Washington. In describing
the “leak” game, he chided reporters to learn to discriminate
and to ask, “Am I being used by the leaker?”
On the workshop's second day, participants had the opportunity to practice
their craft and prepare a story based on the economics of tariffs. The
exercise was critiqued by other members of the media workshop advisory
group—V.V. Chari, economics professor at the University of Minnesota
and a Minneapolis Fed consultant; Dan Sullivan, Cowles Chair of Media
Management and Economics at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism
and Mass Communication; economics reporter Mike Meyers, Minneapolis
Star Tribune; and Chris Worthington, managing editor, St. Paul
Pioneer Press.
Plans are already under way for the 2003 Supply, Demands and Deadlines
workshop. Go to the
Minnesota Journalism Center for more information.
|
Annual Report
