Synopses & Reviews
In an age when pundits constantly decry overt political bias in the media, we have naturally become skeptical of the news. But the bluntness of such critiques masks the highly sophisticated ways in which the media frame important stories. In
Front Page Economics, Gerald Suttles delves deep into the archives to examine coverage of two major economic crashesand#8212;in 1929 and 1987and#8212;in order to systematically break down the way newspapers normalize crises.
Poring over the articles generated by the crashesand#8212;as well as the people in them, the writers who wrote them, and the cartoons that ran alongside themand#8212;Suttles uncovers dramatic changes between the ways the first and second crashes were reported. In the intervening half-century, an entire new economic language had arisen and the practice of business journalism had been completely altered. Both of these transformations, Suttles demonstrates, allowed journalists to describe the 1987 crash in a vocabulary that was normal and familiar to readers, rendering it routine.
A subtle and probing look at how ideologies are packaged and transmitted to the casual newspaper reader, Front Page Economics brims with important insights that shed light on our own economically tumultuous times.
Review
and#8220;While the economy is well covered by the news media, that coverage has not been subjected to the level of scholarly scrutiny warranted by its importance as an aspect of public affairs. Carefully researched and clearly written, Front Page Economics offers an insightful analysis of the business beat and the explanatory strategies its journalists employ.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;News stories are called and#8216;storiesand#8217; for a reason: they have plots and characters, scenes and metaphorsand#8212;just like works of fiction.
Front Page Economics is a splendid evocation of the stories that journalists have told during economic crises. In a painstaking comparative analysis of economic news in the crashes of 1929 and 1987, Gerald Suttles brilliantly reveals how popular economic storytelling was transformed in twentieth-century America.and#8221;
About the Author
Gerald Suttles is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Chicago and adjunct professor of sociology at Indiana University.
and#160;
Mark Jacobs is associate professor of sociology at George Mason University
Table of Contents
Foreword by Mark D. Jacobs
Acknowledgments
Part I.and#160;and#160;The Social Construction of the Economy: 1929 and 1987
Chapter 1.and#160;The Daily Press and Our Collective Conscience
Chapter 2.and#160;The Grounding of the Economy
Part II.and#160;The Daily Dramatism of Economic News
Chapter 3.and#160;The Daily News as Figurative Narratives
Chapter 4.and#160;Personae and Their Purposes
Chapter 5.and#160;Wordscapes and Toonland
Part III.and#160;The Telling of the Great Crashes
Chapter 6.and#160;The Annual Business Cycle and Its Promotersand#160;
Chapter 7.and#160;The Voice of the People
Chapter 8.and#160;Congress and the Courts Have Their Say
Part IV.and#160;The Transformation of Ideology
Chapter 9.and#160;Normalizing the Economy: Popular Ideology and Social RegulationMethodological Appendix
Notes
Works Cited
Index