The media in this country!
The media in this country!
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Discussion

srebbe64

Original Poster:

13,021 posts

267 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
So the last quarter saw GDP drop by 0.5% after steady growth for 15 years! So what? However, you'd think by the reaction of the media that a third world war has broken out.

The reality is, it's the alarmist media that's half the problem. If you're told often enough that the future's looking really bad then people will be reticent to spend their money. This in turn increases the likelihood of recession so it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I reckon that irresponsible media are 50% of the economic problem.

Fittster

20,120 posts

243 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
So the 15 years of growth is also down to the media?

Balmoral Green

42,561 posts

278 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
If they have a tenner, and they lose a penny, it is a plummeting loss. If they gain a penny, it is a soaring increase. If they have half a tank of fuel, it is half empty, or half full, depending on which way they want to spin it. In either case, what they won't do is just tell you that they are either up or down a penny, or that they have half a tank.

paddyhasneeds

67,811 posts

240 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
I do genuinely wonder the extent to which the current financial ststorm would have hit the UK had Peston not existed.

Part of me thinks of course that a BBC News reporter can't possibly influence events on such a scale, but I also know that for three fking days straight he was on the BBC every time I flicked over telling us all how fked we are.

Pesty

42,655 posts

286 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
paddyhasneeds said:
.

Part of me thinks of course that a BBC News reporter can't possibly influence events on such a scale,.
I am not so sure. I wonder if there would have been a run on Northern Rock if the BBC had not reported that there may be a problem in the exact way that it did. Self-fulfilling news story?


JagLover

46,789 posts

265 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
srebbe64 said:
So the last quarter saw GDP drop by 0.5% after steady growth for 15 years! So what? However, you'd think by the reaction of the media that a third world war has broken out.
All the signs are that this is going to be quite a severe recession so some alarm is justified.

LHDisbest

17,002 posts

217 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Sweeping generlisation time:

Journalists are like Policemen - They don't have any real friends because normal people can't relax in their company. Or at least i can't.

I've not met a journalist yet who wouldn't sell their granny to get their name in print.

Every journalist is a fking scum sucking bottom-feeding ! mad

Steamer

14,184 posts

243 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Channel 4 news at 7pm shoot

Tonight they are having a celebration special... a little look back at the boom years if you will "Because Nobody knows JUST how long the down turn will last!!!"

Its not news...its feckin turned into car-crash tv!!

Alfa_75_Steve

7,489 posts

230 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
JagLover said:
srebbe64 said:
So the last quarter saw GDP drop by 0.5% after steady growth for 15 years! So what? However, you'd think by the reaction of the media that a third world war has broken out.
All the signs are that this is going to be quite a severe recession so some alarm is justified.
Going to be a severe recession?

From where I'm sat, we're already deep into one....

Unless you're saying it'll get much, much worse?

JagLover

46,789 posts

265 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Alfa_75_Steve said:
JagLover said:
srebbe64 said:
So the last quarter saw GDP drop by 0.5% after steady growth for 15 years! So what? However, you'd think by the reaction of the media that a third world war has broken out.
All the signs are that this is going to be quite a severe recession so some alarm is justified.
Going to be a severe recession?

From where I'm sat, we're already deep into one....

Unless you're saying it'll get much, much worse?
I think we are just getting started unfortuantly frown

anonymous-user

84 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
srebbe64 said:
So the last quarter saw GDP drop by 0.5% after steady growth for 15 years! So what? However, you'd think by the reaction of the media that a third world war has broken out.

The reality is, it's the alarmist media that's half the problem. If you're told often enough that the future's looking really bad then people will be reticent to spend their money. This in turn increases the likelihood of recession so it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I reckon that irresponsible media are 50% of the economic problem.
You're right, they absolutely love it all. But it sells papers, etc so what do they care?

Balmoral Green

42,561 posts

278 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Can someone explain to me how 0.5% is so serious? If my business were down by 0.5%, so what, if it were down by 10%, so what? we can cruise that sort of downturn, and I would have thought most business could too. It's like being a fiver down in your monthly pay packet, and you're screwed. If your pay packet was halved, fair enough, but these are tiny percentages. Idiot question, but how come they make such a big impact on the economy?

Vario-Rob

3,034 posts

278 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
As old as the hills of course but a point well made none the less.

Nazi Germany thrived on just this sort of thing but in the early 21st century armed with news or should I say editorial hungry 24hr media I am left with the distinct impression established economic theories of the past are being rewritten as we speak.

Take an entirely predictable set of economic conditions and ramp it up, throw fuel all over it, distort it, manipulate it and make a problem many times worse than it might otherwise have been.

Really is anybody that surprised we have now seen negative growth for the first time since the early nineties? It was always going to happen, markets are and evermore shall be cyclical, a wise woman once mentioned just this sort of thing I seem to recall.

Today though we are faced with sensationalist headline after sensationalist headline with accompanying editorial that rarely seems consider robust economic facts that is nothing more than fuel to the flames of the problems the world economies are facing.

Really though this to mind borders on the treasonable, a media setting out to peddle their crap that does little more than undermines the very economic fabric of our society to the determent of all. Quite simply many peoples lives will be unnecessarily harmed which would have entirely avoidable if the media in all its malevolent guises kept to reporting fact

Its many years since I have had to do this sort of thing but in today’s world I wonder to what extent economists factor in the media when formulating an economic model, econometric forecasting that considers Channel 4 News and the s—t that it pedals, frightening, truly frightening.

JagLover

46,789 posts

265 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Balmoral Green said:
Can someone explain to me how 0.5% is so serious? If my business were down by 0.5%, so what, if it were down by 10%, so what? we can cruise that sort of downturn, and I would have thought most business could too. It's like being a fiver down in your monthly pay packet, and you're screwed. If your pay packet was halved, fair enough, but these are tiny percentages. Idiot question, but how come they make such a big impact on the economy?
You have to remember firstly that these are lagging indicators. We are looking into our rearview mirrors at the start of a downward slope. Most of the worst recent financial news happened at the end of September or afterwards. I would guess we are instore for, at the very least, another 3 quarters of negative growth.

0.5% may not sound like much, but it is actually quite a sharp drop for the first quarter of a recession.

ewenm

28,506 posts

275 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
JagLover said:
Balmoral Green said:
Can someone explain to me how 0.5% is so serious? If my business were down by 0.5%, so what, if it were down by 10%, so what? we can cruise that sort of downturn, and I would have thought most business could too. It's like being a fiver down in your monthly pay packet, and you're screwed. If your pay packet was halved, fair enough, but these are tiny percentages. Idiot question, but how come they make such a big impact on the economy?
You have to remember firstly that these are lagging indicators. We are looking into our rearview mirrors at the start of a downward slope. Most of the worst recent financial news happened at the end of September or afterwards. I would guess we are instore for, at the very least, another 3 quarters of negative growth.

0.5% may not sound like much, but it is actually quite a sharp drop for the first quarter of a recession.
Were there headlines saying that growth of 0.5% was a sharp climb? Haven't we had 63 quarters of growth or something?

King Herald

23,501 posts

246 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Steamer said:
Channel 4 news at 7pm shoot

Tonight they are having a celebration special... a little look back at the boom years if you will "Because Nobody knows JUST how long the down turn will last!!!"

Its not news...its feckin turned into car-crash tv!!
Good news doesn't sell newspapers.

That expression is nearly as old as the pyramids, but still true to this day!

What they have on the front page, what they scream from the tv, is all about selling. Selling something, anything, they are unscrupulous, like door to door conmen, they don't care what people think, who they offend or upset, as long as they can make a sale.

johnfm

13,751 posts

280 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Balmoral Green said:
Can someone explain to me how 0.5% is so serious? If my business were down by 0.5%, so what, if it were down by 10%, so what? we can cruise that sort of downturn, and I would have thought most business could too. It's like being a fiver down in your monthly pay packet, and you're screwed. If your pay packet was halved, fair enough, but these are tiny percentages. Idiot question, but how come they make such a big impact on the economy?
good point. 0.5% - is this of GDP? SO, in effect a minescule drop in revenue?

Balmoral Green

42,561 posts

278 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
ewenm said:
JagLover said:
0.5% may not sound like much, but it is actually quite a sharp drop for the first quarter of a recession.
Were there headlines saying that growth of 0.5% was a sharp climb?
Exactly.

srebbe64

Original Poster:

13,021 posts

267 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
Vario-Rob said:
As old as the hills of course but a point well made none the less.

Nazi Germany thrived on just this sort of thing but in the early 21st century armed with news or should I say editorial hungry 24hr media I am left with the distinct impression established economic theories of the past are being rewritten as we speak.

Take an entirely predictable set of economic conditions and ramp it up, throw fuel all over it, distort it, manipulate it and make a problem many times worse than it might otherwise have been.

Really is anybody that surprised we have now seen negative growth for the first time since the early nineties? It was always going to happen, markets are and evermore shall be cyclical, a wise woman once mentioned just this sort of thing I seem to recall.

Today though we are faced with sensationalist headline after sensationalist headline with accompanying editorial that rarely seems consider robust economic facts that is nothing more than fuel to the flames of the problems the world economies are facing.

Really though this to mind borders on the treasonable, a media setting out to peddle their crap that does little more than undermines the very economic fabric of our society to the determent of all. Quite simply many peoples lives will be unnecessarily harmed which would have entirely avoidable if the media in all its malevolent guises kept to reporting fact

Its many years since I have had to do this sort of thing but in today’s world I wonder to what extent economists factor in the media when formulating an economic model, econometric forecasting that considers Channel 4 News and the s—t that it pedals, frightening, truly frightening.
Indeed. Very eloquently put.

johnfm

13,751 posts

280 months

Friday 24th October 2008
quotequote all
The BBC website reports that manufacturing 'fell' 1% and construction 'tumbled' 0.8%. How the fk is less than 1% a 'tumble'?

What we need is factual analysis and reporting, not perjorative language to desribe factual events.

If the growth is only 0.6% to 1.3%, how can a contraction of 0.5% in a quarter be a 'disaster'? Trailing stats or not, it is not a factor of magnitude beyond the growth we had.

Don't hear any level headed analysis out there though