Findings through interviews

5-1. Role of Business/Financial Journalism

In reality, how do business/financial journalists recognise their role in society? A Japanese journalist for Nikkei, Naoko Miyashita talks as follows:

“The articles done by business/financial journalists are completely different from companies’ website information or the financial analysts’ reports. Our role is to classify and present the meaningful information to the citizens through our own criteria. For example, companies’ websites are just the information of their points of view. The financial analysts are just the business persons who always try to sell their clients the profitable stocks. They just care about the investors only”[7].

An experienced journalist of Bloomberg says “The role [of business/financial journalism] is the same [as other conventional journalism]. We are writing for investors, but we are trying to be as transparent as possible. We are trying to make business transparent”.

Those journalists care about their own audience and feel their responsibility to report the information to the audience with scrutinising it. However, it is necessary to examine that their audience is different from other conventional media. A sixteen-year career journalist, Dan Bogler, a managing editor of the Financial Times, discusses that its audience have specific interests to read it. In other words, his audience is more active to obtain the business/financial information than other media’s audience.

“I mean this is the best in the world and I love the Financial Times, but this is not for the paper you read for fun, you know. This is a difficult paper to read, you know, it’s technical, it’s detailed, it’s heavy and you don’t find the things about the Big Brother or, you know, the loyal family or whatever in the end. You read this usually because you have to, because it affects your business in your life”.

According to Bogler, the audience of Financial Times has four categories: (1)decision makers in the area of political, business, economic things such as chief executives and all those in senior management groups (2)politicians, central bank and people in the bank business, people in the think tanks, analyst of investment banks, and economic professors (3)professional investors such as hedge fund and other fund managers (4)retail investors (uniquely in the United Kingdom).

A journalist of Bloomberg also talks about its audience with using the term ‘clients’ as follows:

“[O]ur clients are making multi million dollars decisions based on our stories. They are trading on our headlines and our stories… By clients, I mean the investors, those clients who demand, who are CEOs and CFOs and central bankers and they want very specific, accurate, very specific information not general information”

On the other hand, the general newspaper does not care about the investors much in depth even though it has business/financial pages. A business editor of Yorkshire Evening Post, Nigel Scott discusses that his audience is different from other business/financial journalism because of the difference of the editorial philosophy. His newspaper is a tabloid newspaper. He cares about the interests of the people in Yorkshire in terms of economic issues.

“ Evening Post business is a lot more for people who aren’t necessarily in the world of business, and they may be just workers rather than the boardroom people, but who have an interest in what’s going on the local business world, so that’s the sort of we write for… We are very much a tabloid paper. In terms of the philosophy of the paper, it’s more for the sort of the common man in the streets as it were, the general readership”

William Dawkins, a partner of Odgers Ray and Berndtson, who has a twenty-three year career as a journalist at the Financial Times, points out “the Financial Times is not the general newspaper” and its role in society is “very different” from the other general journalism. The audience are the business elites who make the influential decisions to the world. However, it does not mean that the business/financial journalism is only for the limited number of high class people in society. Dawkins explains that its role is “very important” because the nature of business affects society as a whole.

S)A good business press is an important part of successful economy. The US has great business newspapers. Same as Britain, same as Japan. Business people use these newspapers to help and make judgements.

I) They are doing their own business with using that kind of information.

S)Yes. And these are the people who hire, who provide jobs for hundreds of thousands of people who pump wealth back into the economy. It’s very important to the well being of these countries. They perform well in their work. Business newspapers are more helpful if they are doing their jobs properly.

(S: William Dawkins, I: the researcher)

What kind of news do they try to get? Bogler provides the definition of his scoops as “something that the company doesn’t want them to know” and the information comes “from competitor, or from an analysts, or from a supplier, or customer or something or someone inside of the company, but not maybe the management”.

According to a journalist of Bloomberg, Merger and Acquisition, some executive’s promotion or resignation, and the company’s decision to open the new factory are the examples of scoops. In addition, Scott talks that the negative stories such as company’s corruption and other wrong doings are the scoops:

“Obviously, you have got yourself through your contacts, your networking, your digging, that is something that everybody will want to read about that it has the great impact on the city, uh… that may expose corruption, or wrong doing, you know.., it’s a good story that you got through your own talent and efforts, and contacts, nobody else has got but everybody wants to read and everybody will follow the next days”.

On the other hand, one role of journalism is to take the voiceless people’s voice. How does he think of this point? Dawkins talks that the business/financial journalism is not for the weak but for the influential class toward the weak. “The business press is to help business people and financial people make judgements” and “it’s not the voice of the people, not at all”.

Writing articles for the “limited” audience sometimes make them cynical to their job. For example, one equities reporter working for a large international news organisation confesses that her reports just contribute to the participants of the market.

“Most of my articles are about what the companies have done and it is just like for the other people’s profitability. It is true that I can learn something through my job, and that is good for me but I am just feeling that this is not for the life-time job. I cannot deny the possibility to be interested in more meaningful jobs [for the ordinary citizens], for example the editor of a non governmental organisation’s publication or something”.[8]

For example, when “company A” which is a public corporation leaks some information to a journalist exclusively, the story will be published as a scoop through the examination by the journalist. After the publication of the article, the stock price of the company A will sharply move. In this context, this journalist contributes to the market. The problem is the case that the leaker of company A has an intention to affect the stock price in his or her favourable way by leaking a story to the journalist. In other words, journalists have a risk to be used to control the stock prices by their news sources.

However, some interviewees accept their role as participants in the market, and they understand it is impossible to stop the fluctuation of the stock market. Scott says “[Y]ou got the scoop and your article is read and respected, so you are winning. You are doing the right thing, I think. Because you can’t control the market but if it’s good information, then it’s your duty almost, isn’t it? To be reported”. Dawkins also talks “you [a business/financial journalist] are the part of the market”, and “it’s a very good thing”.

S)You’re publishing information that it’s got to be published anyway. It’s not the newspaper is not driving the stock prices up. Good business press is the part of the market its way of distributing the information

I) So it’s not a bad thing to be a participant of the market or contribute to the market.

S) That’s a very good thing because it improves the quality of the market. Good business press is a part of good part of market economy

(S: William Dawkins, I: the researcher)

The spread of the Internet changes the audience. Masahide Inatome, a Japanese journalist for the magazine, Weekly Economist, notices that the audience is smarter than journalists and want to have the quick information to scrutinise by itself:

“It is sad to say this, but I feel that the people in Japan do not need the journalistic point of view anymore. People are getting to need the information speedy in a convenient way. It is obvious to see the sales of magazines. Because of the Internet, and people can collect and judge the useful information by themselves. They do not need the editorial columns or the journalistic points of view anymore”. [9]

On this matter, Dawkins has a different point of view. He agrees that the audience is smarter than before, but the role “to shine the light through the storm” is still significant. According to him, the interpretation and the presentation of in-depth analysis by the journalists are necessary because the information is overloaded.

“[T]he value of analysis is much greater than it was. We do business in the world. The major companies are competing with each other with access to the same information everybody’s, same technology, and the finance, the same cost, which means the best way for that getting competitive parties can differentiate from the rivals is to be able to foretell the future, that means being able to interpret the data all around”.

In summary, the role of business/financial journalism is nearly the same as other journalism to report the things for citizens, but one big difference is that it is not for the voiceless people’s voice. This point stems from its audience. The audience is “business elites” such as the investors, the bankers, and other economic people. It is indispensable to affect the stock markets through the reports, and it is good for society. In the Internet era, the role to present the interpretation and in-depth analysis is required to guide citizens to the right way.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14