A qualified ‘yes’?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

A qualified ‘yes’?

But whether the media is equipped to handle those stories is another question. In the case of the WTO protests, for example, “few publications could describe what was really at stake” with the negotiations, said Peter Hillan, former executive business editor of the San Jose Mercury News.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has been involved with the issue of economic literacy for the better part of two decades, most often at the K-12 level. Given the reach, impact and educational nature of the news media, the Minneapolis Fed queried more than 150 journalists, former journalists and journalism school faculty via e-mail and phone for their personal opinions regarding the economics know-how of news organizations. About 40 responded to the informal, open-ended survey. While no iron-clad conclusions can be made, a number of interesting themes emerged.

Asked whether most reporters had a grasp of basic economics, most respondents gave a qualified “no”: Know-how of economics was generally good at elite news organizations and among the business and financial press. Below that upper crust, most believed that economic literacy waned—sometimes badly—as you moved down the media ladder in terms of market size, and was generally suspect throughout broadcast news. Despite such criticism, there was no clear answer regarding what, if anything, should be done. In fact, a fair handful of respondents believed that poor understanding of economics in the media—even if present—was not a terribly significant problem.