Biz journalism ignores the human impact

Susan Zhang of The Michigan Daily writes about the numerical fixation in business journalism and how many publications ignore the human impact.

Zhang writes, “Financial newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, reinforce this fixation on numbers. In doing so, financial journalism overlooks the human impact by detailing the consequences of current events on profits and stock prices instead of on people’s lives and communities. Many business students or professionals have an overreliance on financial news, learning to analyze current events based only on their value to generate portfolio returns or impact a company’s profitability. When we lose this human focus, we become unaware of these problems and stop thinking about ways to help.

“As readers of business news, we can correct this blind spot by reading from a diverse set of outlets and recognizing the intertwined nature of finance and social impact.

“Remembering the human perspective is especially important due to the shortsightedness of business thinking. Financial journalism and business students alike predominantly focus on making money or maximizing profits. Even if corporate leaders only depended on profit when making decisions, each choice impacts the company, its stakeholders, its employees and the surrounding community. When we read news that exclusively covers the financial perspective, we fall into traps of close-mindedness.”

Read more here.