The 2008 financial crisis

Introduction

According to analysts, the 2008 financial crisis was the most catastrophic economic disaster since the 1930s Great Depression. The crisis began in 2007, despite efforts to keep the US banking system from collapsing, and progressed into a fully-developed international banking crisis following the failure of the investment firm Lehman Brothers. The majority of banks took excessive risks, which contributed to the crisis’s global financial impact, and the crisis finally led to the Great Recession, which was characterised by high unemployment and a drop in house values. The primary objective of this write up is to identify how the media handled the entire financial crisis.

Lack of Sufficient Press Coverage

It is quite clear that press coverage was insufficient during the months leading up to the 2008 crisis as the media failed to focus on the matter heedless of the negative impact the investment industry downturn would have on the public. There was limited coverage and even that, gave inaccurate information with distorted explanations and biased reports about the situation as well as splintered information that underestimated how severe the condition was (Rafter, 2014). Reporters took extreme caution in presenting the issue because they feared being seen as putting forth a self-fulfilling prophecy: they did not want financial institutions to fail since they (the press) gave implications that there was a potential for the failure. In consequence, due to the press actions and less coverage during the period, the public was gravely affected by the financial industry’s operations. The press did not fulfill their role of giving accurate information to the public.

Role of Reporters

Additionally, to de-emphasize how severe the situation was, reporters opted to use less assertive words to describe the events, a move that did a great disservice to the public since the role of reporters is to give unaltered, unbiased and factual information to the public. Being more concerned with protecting the image of financial institutions, reporters disregarded their loyalty to the public and instead affiliated themselves with the interests of the institutions (Hausman & Johnston, 2014). Restructuring information to prevent panic was not the role of the press because they should not be held responsible for the public’s reaction to any information. They have to relay the information as it is.

Misleading Tone

The financial press offered more insight into the crisis than the mainstream media but the former’s tone while giving coverage evoked mixed signals for the public because it was a misleading tone that eventually skewed the information, rendering the coverage inadequate (Mercille, 2014). Lack of coverage of the financial crisis was also as a result of the media inability to take a stand about the issue. Their viewpoints regularly changed hence throwing the public into confusion and leaving them uncertain about the future. In doing so, the press tainted their reputation as a reliable source of information and failed to give accurate information to the people.

Insufficient and Delayed Insight

Notwithstanding that the media gave limited insight about the financial crisis, they provided the insight late hence it was less-effective to the public because many people had already lost noteworthy investments before they were even conscious of the unrest facing the financial industry.

Conclusion

The insufficient press coverage during the 2008 financial crisis led to dire consequences for the general public. Their aptness to use less harsh words in describing particular events and tendency to underrate the extremity of potential damage led to an uninformed public such that by the time the people became aware of the situation at hand, the majority had suffered massive losses.

References

Hausman, A., & Johnston, W. J. (2014). The role of innovation in driving the economy: Lessons from the global financial crisis. Journal of Business Research, 67(1), 2720-2726.

Mercille, J. (2014). The political economy and media coverage of the European economic crisis: the case of Ireland (Vol. 188). Routledge.

Rafter, K. (2014). Voices in the crisis: The role of media elites in interpreting Ireland’s banking collapse. European Journal of Communication, 29(5), 598-607.