Media coverage of business climate has become increasingly negative

Anna-Louise Jackson, a student at Northwestern University’s Medill School, writes that the media’s coverage of current business conditions has increasingly turned negative, according to research from a local firm.

Jackson wrote, “Rich Spitzer, head of Northbrook-based TrendPointers LLC, said negative reporting on the state of the economy has reached an all-time high.

“‘The sentiment has dropped off the chart,’ he said.

“Spitzer tracks business news from three sources: mass media, business media and ‘guru’ media, coding sentiment on a 5-point scale from very positive to very negative. Spitzer said positive views account for only 10 percent of business coverage, while negative views account for 45 percent.

“‘The recession mentality has hit,’ Spitzer said. ‘The psychology has finally met up with reality.’

“As business coverage shifts from speculation to the reality of ‘recession depression,’ Spitzer is noticing more practical advice in the media since he began tracking discussions of recession last fall.”

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