Narrating inflation: How German economic journalists explain post-covid price rises

Tobias Schmidt

No 14, DoCMA Working Papers from TU Dortmund University, Dortmund Center for Data-based Media Analysis (DoCMA)

Abstract: This paper examines the pivotal role of journalists in shaping economic narratives, focusing on inflation coverage in Germany in 2022. While the media's influence on disseminating economic narratives is widely acknowledged, little research has focused on journalists, the agents responsible for content production. Using a mixed-method approach combining survey data with media content analysis, this study investigates how economic journalists explain inflation causes and persistence compared to professional economists. The results from surveys conducted during peak inflation (10.4%) show that journalists hold less optimistic views on inflation persistence than experts and that they are more likely to attribute inflation to specific protagonists, particularly the European Central Bank (ECB) and corporate profit-seeking. The ECB's role emerges as an especially contentious issue among journalists, revealing significant disagreement within the profession. Analysis of media coverage reveals notable alignment between journalists' perceptions and actual content, especially regarding the emphasis placed on the ECB's role-despite experts considering monetary policy a relatively minor factor. While this might suggest that journalists' personal narratives influence media coverage, the study's design precludes causal claims. The findings underscore the need for further research into how journalists' personal narratives impact public discourse on economic matters.

Keywords: media; narratives; journalism; inflation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/313658/1/1920230688.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:docmaw:313658

DOI: 10.17877/DE290R-25380

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in DoCMA Working Papers from TU Dortmund University, Dortmund Center for Data-based Media Analysis (DoCMA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().