Categories: OLD Media Moves

Business journalism and the movies

Allen Wastler, the managing editor of CNBC.com, writes Thursday that he often uses movies to explain complicated business journalism topics.

I like hisÂ use of commodity trading using the Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd movie “Trading Places” because I have used the same when teaching about commodities markets.

Wastler writes, “In financial journalism, you often have to explain complicated concepts simply. It can be hard. That’s why I like movies.

“When someone asks me to explain what a ‘bank run’ is, I often refer to ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and the bank panic that killed George’s honeymoon plans. That’s come in handy for all the recent Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. coverage. People quickly go ‘Oh , yeah.’ Then, with images of panicked people and George’s heart-felt talk about the money being in homes, not bank vaults, you can go ahead and dive deeper.

“In fact, clips from the scene are often used by TV news to get into bank run stories, since it quickly conveys the emotional sense of what’s going on. (And if bankers were more like Jimmy Stewart, maybe there wouldn’t be so much Wall Street roadkill, but that’s another post).

“A colleague recently pointed out that ‘Mary Poppins’ also has a good bank run scene. I also like Mary Poppins for its overall explanation of how banking works.”

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Bernie Kohn says:
June 13, 2008 at 4:14 pm
When I was business editor at The Tampa Tribune, I hired a reporter who was mostly new to business to cover citrus and agriculture. My first advice to him was to rent Trading Places. Amazing how fast he understood how orange juice futures work.