The visuals accompanying The Great Financial Crisis (a new moniker I've spotted for this is Depression 2.0 used by Paul Krugman) are rather dreary and dull for the most part. Charts heading down? How exciting is that? Certainly not like Anderson Cooper swimming with sharks. Of Time's top 10 magazine covers for 2008, only Conde Nast's Portfolio had a cover on the economic news.
A very niched blog, Brokers With Hands On Their Faces Blog started on October 3, 2008 to capture a very specific way that we saw this unfolding. Prior to this, for sale signs in yards topped with the add-on FORECLOSURE seemed to accompany articles in online newsoutlets about this time.
Other niche sites like economic blogs are gaining clout through this story.
note: This is part of my continuing study of The Great Financial Crisis as it unfolds in the media (Part I, Part II, Part III via flickr).
Google News, gaining ground, lists sites most often linked to as sources for top stories. In a study of most-cited news sources on Google News, Newsknife found that Bloomberg, a financial news service, was listed as one of the top sources for 2008 for news stories, ranking on a world-wide basis with Reuters, AP, CNN, Voice of America and FOX News. Newsknife also saw istockAnalyst.com for the first time in May 2008. Another niche site getting play on Google: 24/7 Wall st.
While some call it the most undercovered media story of the year and Columbia Journalism Review asks how the media missed the story, 77% of Americans think the U.S. media are making the economic situation worse by highlighting negative news and, as a result, lowering consumer confidence and investment activity.
The economic policies of the Bush administration and their "let them eat cake" attitude is the culprit. Those of us at the bottom of the food chain know this.
Posted by: Kay Dennison | January 06, 2009 at 08:19 AM