Econ-101 for reporters?

A very interesting and fortunate coincidence happened on Monday. Shortly after reading chapter 4 of our book, about journalistic errors, I was reading that day's Boston Globe and noticed an Op-Ed piece that was directly relevant to that topic, called "Understanding Business Aids Journalists' Bottom Line"

(http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/10/19/understanding_business_aids_journalists_bottom_line/)

It's written by a professor who teaches a course for journalism students about basic business and economic principles. He describes how important it is for these future reporters to have a strong knowledge of these important concepts and how challenging it is for many of the students, at least initially. In addition to covering some essential math/numeric points, he gives them some important insights and perspective about the interdependence of private business (corporations) and public interests (government).

These are things that all of us should understand well, but for various reasons many don't, including journalists at all levels and formats. It's especially crucial to understand these topics at our present point in time, after our economy nearly fell apart due to financial markets getting out of control. Economic issues have always been relevant to everyone's life, but the complex interconnections reach even deeper now into our lives, from our jobs to the goods we buy and money we (try to) save for future needs, including retirement. We should expect that reporters covering the "business beat" to have a firm grasp on the subtle factors that influence economic conditions and market trends.

The Globe piece does not address the ethical issues covered in the book chapter (see page 64), but it underscores the fact that ignorance of business issues is no longer a valid excuse for errors or misunderstandings in economy-related news stories.