Answer To: you must answer one of the following eight questions. In all cases you must combine theoretical...
Soumi answered on Feb 27 2021
Student ID: 160020158
WHAT ROLE DOES THE MEDIA PLAY DURING PERIODS OF ECONOMIC CRISIS?
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Role of Media during Economic Crisis 3
Selection of Sequence of spreading the News 3
The Neutral Phase 5
Passive Transition to Positivity of Impact 6
Active Transition to Positivity of Impact 7
Positive Impact of Media during Economic Crisis 8
Negative Impact of Media during Economic Crisis 9
Conclusion 11
References 12
Introduction
In the modern world of quick information and quick communication, media plays a crucial role. The primary role of media is to provide true information about the happening in the country and across the globe. As noted by Baker (2015), the media industry has grown at a rapid pace in the recent past. The number of media companies in the market has increased significantly in the past few years. Media channels like to touch upon multiple sources of information, whether it be national or foreign. There is no limit to the reach of media across the globe, which provides it the power to spread information to mass.
The role of media in case of economic crisis cannot be ignored. In the last few years, media has played both positive and negative role during boom and recessions. Television Rating Points (TRP) is used to judge the programs, which are, viewed the most. In the modern times, focus is more on increasing the TRP rather than supplying true information to the viewers or readers. According to Brassett and Clarke (2012), different media persons have different perspectives to a particular situation, which leads to a difference in the manner of supply of information in the market.
Role of Media during Economic Crisis
Selection of Sequence of spreading the News
The role of media in financial markets cannot be ignored. As mentioned by Moeran and Waal (2018), every day, after the closure of stock market operations, there is a daily analysis by the media experts across various channels and newspapers. Media companies hire experts to analyze the markets with great precision. However, the presentation of the results varies from company to company. As commented by Cameron et al (2011), the economic as well as political scenario influences the manner, in which an information is spread in the market. The news may be positive for a particular industry and may have a negative impact on the other industry. The presentation of information will vary depending on the media house. In case of the sub-prime crisis of 2008, the event was portrayed as an unexpected traumatic event. It was expressed in terms of natural disaster and was named as “financial tsunami” to exaggerate the situation and develop fear in the minds of the public. According to Brassett and Clarke (2012), the event was displayed in terms of a shock, devastation, anxiety, fear, anger and shame to grab the attention.
The primary purpose of the media channel is to grab attention. This enables the channel or media company to increase the TRP, which is an electronic measure of the number of views. According to the opinion of De Cock et al. (2011), the media representatives display the information in the manner to grab the maximum attention of the audience. Any information is shown by many news channels therefore, grabbing the maximum attention is a matter of challenge. Even if an event does not affect the industry excessively, in order to grab maximum attention of the viewer’s, the media exaggerates the same. Attractive quotes are used as headlines to grab the attention during the first look (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2019).
During the economic crisis, the media tries to portray the information to grab the maximum attention of the audience. In case of Great economic recession, the officials of companies provided around 40% of the information. In addition to that, it spreads awareness among the public regarding the chances of economic crisis. It tries to display the real picture of the industry and individual firms. Based on various parameters, the health of industry and firms are analyzed. It provides the insights of the prior events to ensure that the viewers can assess the situation in an effective manner. As mentioned by Griffin (2015), the information provided by the media enables the viewers and readers to take an informed decision regarding their investment. In case of economic crisis, the value of investment goes down by a great extent. This is the time to take some serious decisions for the investors. The information provided by the media enables the audience to take such decisions.
However, the perspective of the information differs from media house to media house. According to Jessop (2015), the representations of the media vary across various organizations, which has a significant impact in shaping the perceptions of the public. Financial, economic and political journalists have an integral role to play in unusual suspects namely research institutes, think tanks and others. The understanding of the media personnel about the events shapes the perception of the audience in the same manner. It may be due to political favors or difference in views of analysts. A particular financial result can be assessed from different perspectives, which leads to a difference in opinion of the experts (Papathanassopoulos, 2014). The media also creates a sense of moral panic among the investors. This creates a sense of curiosity among the investors to wait for the next news eagerly. According to views of MacKenzie (2011), the moral panic often leads to an ineffective decision on the part of the viewers. However, the media is mainly concerned with increasing its rating points. Debates and others such activities are organized to discuss the matter, which is sometimes affected by the political angle to a situation. In this context, the constructivist political economy theory can be applied, which is a sub-part of the constructivism theory. According to Jessop (2015), constructivism is a claim that the international relations are constructed socially and historically rather than essential characteristics of world politics or human nature. This philosophy explain that the core aspects of international relations are contrary to the neoliberalism and neorealism theories.
The Neutral Phase
After the media has grabbed enough attention from the public, they try to portray both sides of the situation. This is the time when the experts from the relevant industry are hired to analyze the situation deeply. Debates and various discussions are conducted to extract the most useful information and displayed to viewers. As stated by Kalogeropoulos et al. (2015), various media channel approach the best industry expert to ensure that the attention can be grabbed easily. Hiring a capable expert also enables the media to increase the confidence of viewers.
The industrial experts used various modern tools to analyze the situation and compare the same with past events. Majority of the information is generated in capital cities. During the economic crisis of 2008, around 76% of the information was from either New York or Metro Washington. The output of the analysis enables the viewers to take the firm decision on their investment. In addition to that, corporates are able to analyze the situation in a better manner. Large corporates have the resource to hire the best industry expert, but small businesses do not have such financial backup to do the same. As noted by Hay (2011), the experts portray both sides of the information to the viewers. The effectiveness of a decision varies from industry to industry and from business to business. This is the time when there are chances of real...