Does the media fan the flames of Wall Street’s troubles?

October 28, 2008 – 8:52 pm – No Comment

Well, probably.

With 24 hour news programs, the media has to cover something, why not the worst news it can find? I’m not against the news at all, every once in a while I do enjoy sitting down and watching a little MSNBC, but with the problems on Wall Street, investors are keeping their eyes glued to the TV and the internet to watch their investments minute by minute…It’s dangerous and can lead to a rash decision.

If you were worried about your investments, I’m sure you’ve seen Jim Kramer’s tearful plea earlier this month for people to take all their money out of the markets. The only bad thing is that he’s influential and people listen to him. With the doom and gloom news on all the time now (not just the evening news like the last major downturn), people are more worried and it really affects those viewers more.

At the same time, it is a good tool to have the all the information you could ever want right at your fingertips. I mean, I would never be able to blog about anything if I couldn’t read online news. Not only that, but people are more aware now than ever before. With the news, all the time, being about the economy, citizens want something done about it, rather than just being complacent.