Does Anybody Care About Economic News? – And if So Which Kind?

Abstract

Previous content analysis of the media coverage of the economy has mainly studied news about the business cycle. Focussing on the actual consumption of economic news by media users on Facebook reveals that economic news about income distribution and labour market issues attract far more attention than do news about the business cycle. As a consequence it is suggested to operate with a much broader understanding of economic news in future research than normally done. Economic news might cover questions of distribution, labour market issues as well as the state of the economy. Possible implications of such a shift is briefly considered in the conclusion.