How should the financial press inform the public?

What constitutes "good" business journalism?

Business reporting requires specialized knowledge about the economy and the industry. It is
more demanding than ‘‘writing about a football game, a school board meeting, a robbery,
new music fad, or a political campaign’’ because journalists must ‘‘understand the
intricacies of the field and write about them in clear, concise, intelligible prose’’ (Welles,
1991, p. xvii).

Challenges of business journalism:

Same economic data may support two disparate interpretations
Relatively few newspapers support highly critical stories or investigative projects against powerful forces (Welles, 1991, pp. xv, xvii).

Journalists are not even good at covering their own industry --

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH? Examining how newspapers covered the newspaper ‘‘crisis’’

This study examines how the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times framed the newspaper ‘‘crisis.’’

Newspaper journalists often fail to contextualize their reports with a comprehensive understanding of the economics of the newspaper industry,

They rely too heavily on the views of newspaper publishers and too little on empirical data.

The coverage tended to focus more on personnel numbers (50.7 percent) than key financial indicators such as advertising revenue (34.7 percent), company debts (25 percent), pricing strategies (11.1
percent), or cost structure (10.4 percent).

Coverage focused on short-term drama over long-term trends, lacked sufficient context, shifted blame away from newspapers themselves, invoked ‘‘death’’ imagery, and altogether struggled to capture a holistic portrayal of newspapers’ troubles.

But money matters:
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/opinion/cash-opt-for-transparency/nWFHN/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?pagewanted=all

What Watchdog?

• When it comes to financial journalism, whether I'm reading it or attempting to write about it, I feel like Patrick and Spongebob with the Orb of Confusion. The information goes in one ear and out the other. I just can't wrap my head around numbers like that, and I know I'm not the only student journalist who feels this way. Many students choose journalism because they enjoy writing, or they've at least always been the creative type. Math/numbers do not mesh well with writing, so it's very hard for us to put them together. I believe that is a big reason that there aren't too many financial journalists and why we don't see very much about Wall Street in the news.
• Maybe I'm just a piggybacker, but after reading this article, I'm thinking, "Yeah! Why doesn't Wall Street get more negative coverage?" Like I already said, I'm not very knowledgeable about numbers, especially how money works in this country, but Wall Street is to blame for at least some of our economic problems, right?
• "At its best, it is the main thing that is capable of explaining complex problems to a mass audience. That’s its most critical role--and its most difficult task." - I constantly need to be reminded of this. All too often do I just take what sources give me, no questions asked, and write my stories on stupid topics that don't even warrant any public attention. As a journalist, I must constantly question the motives of our government. I think many other student journalists need this rammed into their heads as well.
• "It’s very poorly understood and documented." - Good summary of financial journalism. But in order for people to understand it better, more journalists must be trained on how to correctly interpret numbers so that we can properly make things easier for the public to understand, because ultimately, that is our job.