Determining Economic News Coverage

Abstract

While much research has been devoted to how individuals respond to media messages and frames, we know much less about what motivates variations in the content and tone of media coverage. Given the important consequences of media coverage of economic events, this paper explores the factors that explain variations in economic news coverage as a function of both economic indicators and contextual influences. Two innovations to the political communication field are introduced in this study. First, Poisson autoregression is used to investigate what accounts for monthly changes in the amount of economic coverage. Second, two separate measures of news tone, contemporary and comparative coverage, are used to assess how economic reality factors in to economic reporting. The results illustrate that the news media, in deciding economic newsworthiness and level of coverage, do not view all economic statistics equally and at the same times. In addition, rival stories and elections impact the level of economic coverage. The results also suggest the news media indeed emphasize the negative, from both a contemporary and comparative perspective, and economic reality has little impact on coverage tone.