Summary:
Mia Kurvinen, The power of media as a conveyor of economic issues, 2008–2011
Since 2007, the global economy has been a roller coaster with markets moving up and down according to the latest news about the global economy. Even today, after four years of unstable markets, the global recession is a big mystery to the economic and political world. As a consequence of the financial crisis, the global economy has descended into recession. One of the world’s leading economic zones, Europe, has suffered most from this situation. The European Union (EU) along with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been working in close cooperation to resolve the crisis and stabilise the economic situation. Despite the fact that all parties have been working hard to achieve the desired results and return to positive economic growth, we are still living with uncertainty as to whether or not another recession will occur and the global economy will slide into a double-dip.
The aim of this article is to evaluate how the media, especially the printed media, reports economic issues and policy. I have focussed on a selection of Finnish newspapers and for comparison, I have used equivalent Estonian newspapers. As a specific topic, I have concentrated on the economic policy, which the European Union has carried out during the time period. This critical situation raises questions as to whether the media has used its power as an influencer or on the contrary, that power has been used by politicians, who use the media in order to convey a certain message. The protracted recession has turned everyone’s eyes towards Europe and its aims to resolve the on-going euro crisis.
My aim is to compare the actions of the media in Finnish and Estonian newspapers concerning economic issues. I shall analyse the following elements from the news: the topics the media has concentrated on, especially in field of economic policy; and which news they have printed and why. One core question is, ‘Who actually uses the power and how does this affect the content?’
