Since the global financial crisis in 2008, economics has dominated the news agenda, with issues such as migration, growth, trade and unemployment remaining hotly debated in the media. How to Report Economic News is an accessible introduction to our contemporary economic landscape and journalistic approaches to economic news coverage.
Nicola Walton, an experienced financial journalist, presents a comprehensive guide to important economic indicators and how to report on them, as well as giving advice on identifying essential facts needed for any economic news story. The author also offers useful tips on journalistic writing that can help ensure articles are written clearly, concisely and with precision. To provide readers with further guidance, each chapter concludes with assignments to test your knowledge, a resource list for further reading and a glossary of key terms.
Chapters cover key topics including inflation, monetary policy, labour markets, fiscal policy and residential property markets. The book takes the UK economy as its main focus, but also explores European, US and Japanese markets in depth. In addition, the title explores other major global topics such as the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) economies and the role of multinational organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.
By combining an overview of current financial systems and economic developments with instruction on economic reporting, this title is a valuable resource for students of Journalism, trainee journalists, as well as anyone interested in learning more about modern economics.
List of figures i
List of tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Monetary policy
2. Inflation
3. Economic growth
4. Labour markets
5. Fiscal policy
6. Trade
7. Emerging markets
8. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank
9. Residential property markets
10. Surveys
Index
Biography
Nicola Walton has worked as a financial journalist in broadcast and print media for many years. She was a visiting lecturer at City University’s School of Journalism in London from 2010–2014, where she taught an economic reporting module on the Financial Journalism MA course.
‘The proposal includes a nice mix of topics that largely mirror those I cover in my "Reporting on the Economy" course […] The global perspective of the author and text is a strength, as well […] I would certainly consider it […] The main weakness from my perspective is that it is UK-centric […] But that would obviously be a strength if you are teaching in the UK! The UK-centric approach probably would prevent it from being a required text but the global perspective could make it a useful supplement.’ –Pam Luecke, Washington and Lee University, USA
‘The key strengths of the book is that it appears to offer an accessible introduction to basic economic terms and issues […] Probably the key weakness of the book is that some of what it describes as the key issues could become dated […]It probably covers the main areas.’ –Keith Butterick, University of Huddersfield, UK
‘The approach is very practical and useful, thinking in the students. The assignments at the end of each chapter are very important […] it seems that the style will be very attractive […]It is very relevant that the author will try to think about how to be effective communicating economic news through new technologies […] I could consider including a book like this in my courses as supplementary reading, not as an essential one. The main reason –for a Spanish university- is the difficulty to adopt as a required text a book in a foreign language.’ – Angel Arrese, University of Navarra, Spain
