Economic News on Television: The Determinants of Coverage

Abstract

This paper examines television networks' coverage of unemployment rate, inflation rate as measured by Consumer Price Index, and growth rate of real GNP over twelve years from 1973 through 1984. This time period includes two major recessions, two severe bursts of inflation, and three presidential elections. A common complaint is that networks overemphasize bad economic news. Using two measures of coverage, this paper examines whether television networks give greater coverage to these statistics when they are deteriorating. The empirical results reveal that networks do give greater coverage to bad economic news during nonelection years, but this pattern disappears during election years. The empirical results also reveal that presidential comments are very powerful in shaping amount of coverage given to these economic statistics. There is strong evidence that television news plays a powerful role in shaping public opinion (Kinder and Iyengar, 1987). This influence, however, may or may not be desirable. According to Kinder and Iyengar, this depends on thorny of faithfully pictures and stories that appear on news each night portray what of real consequence is actually happening in world (1987:122). The networks' coverage of presents a wonderful opportunity to investigate this question for two reasons. First, there is a common perception among some critics that networks' coverage of distorts reality. These critics complain that networks overemphasize bad economic news. For example, economist Herbert Stein-a former chairman of Council of Economic Advisors-believes that the press communicates an excesDAVID E. HARRINGTON iS Himmelright Assistant Professor of Economics at Kenyon College. The author would like to thank Bruce Corrie and John Scott for their research assistance as well as Rick Coe, John Elliott, Kathy Krynski, Jim Likens, Mark Montgomery, Steve Marks, Hans Palmer, Gary Smith, Peter Weipert, and Frank Wykoff for their helpful comments. Public Opinion Quarterly Volume 53:17-40 ? 1989 by American Association for Public Opinion Research Published by The University of Chicago Press / 0033-362X/88/0053-01/$2.50 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.106 on Mon, 25 Apr 2016 05:56:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 David E. Harrington sively dramatic, anxious and negative view of economy (Stein, 1975:40). Similarly, President Reagan complained during 1982-83 recession that constantly downbeat coverage of was inhibiting recovery (Washington Post, 1982). In response, CBS anchorman Dan Rather argues that these criticisms are attempts to convince public that are not problems (Associated Press, 1983). In other words, he believes that these critics are blaming messengers for bad economic news. Second, actual performance of is continuously measured by several economic statistics. As a result, it is possible to examine how coverage of economy'depends on actual performance of economy. This paper uses networks' coverage of unemployment rate, inflation rate as measured by Consumer Price Index, and growth rate of real GNP over twelve years from 1973 through 1984 to test whether television networks give greater coverage to these statistics when they are deteriorating, holding other factors constant. The paper also examines how coverage changes during election years and whether president can influence amount of coverage by commenting on statistics.