Biz media has been focusing on the negative

John Heinzl of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes Thursday that a recent study of how the media has covered business issues this summer shows that they are focusing on the negative.

Heinzl wrote, “To find out, U.S. research firm Birinyi Associates examined how The New York Times covered the wild swings on the stock market during the subprime mortgage meltdown/credit squeeze/generalized panic that gripped markets in recent weeks.

“Here’s what Birinyi found: Since the Dow Jones industrial average topped out in mid-July, the stock market made page one of the Times five times. ‘And every one of those days was a down day,’ it said.

“But on the eight occasions when the Dow posted triple-digit gains, the story was usually buried inside the business section.”

Read more here.