Categories: OLD Media Moves

Media coverage and the market’s drop

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo News looks at whether media coverage of the stock market’s drop on Thursday contributed to the fall.

Stableford writes, “But how much of Thursday’s slide can be attributed to the media–particularly cable news, which treated the market’s fall-off as breaking news throughout the afternoon, potentially fueling fear among investors?

“Not much, media and financial vets say.

“‘These investors are way too sophisticated,’ Charlie Gasparino, senior correspondent for the Fox Business network, told The Cutline. ‘The markets are pretty smart, investors are pretty smart. They can see through the bull—-.’

“Dan Gross, economics editor at Yahoo! Finance, agreed.

“‘A huge chunk of volume — and hence momentum — is now driven by machines, computers and algorithmic trading,’ Gross said. ‘And the computers definitely aren’t watching cable news.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.