The importance of the labor beat

A post on Al Jazeera examines why the business news media no longer covers labor stories.

The post states, “Yet, over the years, the US media has deserted workers and sought more upscale, affluent audiences. When labour issues are reported, they are often seen through the lens of business, leaving little opportunity for the US working class to see itself and its concerns reflected in the media.

“When you consider that more than 150 million Americans are in full or part-time employment, it’s a wonder there aren’t more stories about workers and the challenges they face in testing economic times.

“‘Labour as an issue has been really absent from the media coverage. Business reporting, whatever we call economics reporting now, is focused on financial markets. And we know from our everyday lives that financial markets is not where 99.9 percent of Americans live their lives,’ explains Michelle Chen, contributing writer of The Nation.

“When US workers do attract media interest, US journalists seem interested in a certain kind of worker.”

Read more here.