Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » financial journalism

#jpod: A guide to using numbers in journalism

Sarah Marshall — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:42:04 +0000

The vast majority of journalists are tasked with reporting statistics from time to time. From hospital waiting times to crime reports, company results, government figures and the annual budget, all have scope for inaccuracies and reporters can get the story wrong.

This podcast looks at how numbers can lead to errors and embarrassment for journalists.

Journalism.co.uk technology correspondent Sarah Marshall hears advice from Michael Blastland, author and creator of the BBC Radio 4 programme More or Less; James Ball, data reporter at the Guardian; Professor Steve Schifferes, course leader in financial journalism at City University and Andy Trotter, chief constable of the British Transport Police.

You can hear all our podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.Similar Posts:

BBC responds to Chancellor’s criticism of financial reporting

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:20:19 +0000

Yesterday on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme the Chancellor George Osborne seemed to suggest that the BBC‘s reporting on the economy had at times focused on more ‘bad news’ stories than positive, saying he wanted to see “more balance”.

I’ve listened to news bulletins on your programme for the last year. Every time there’s an unfortunate loss of jobs somewhere, a few hundred jobs, it’s on the news bulletin. I’ve not yet heard a single news bulletin that says 400,000 new jobs have been created over the past year, that just doesn’t appear on the news.

Last week there was a disappointing manufacturing survey, it was on the news, today there’s a more encouraging manufacturing survey, its not on the news. I think what I’m asking for is a bit more balance in the way we look at the British economy at the moment.

Later that day editor of the BBC News business and economics unit Jeremy Hillman responded via the Editors Blog to the specific claims.

… had the chancellor been listening carefully to Today just an hour earlier (he seemed to suggest he had been but may have missed it) he would have heard our economics editor Stephanie Flanders say clearly that over the last year employment has been very strong and that private employment was especially strong.

Viewers of our main Six and Ten O’Clock News bulletins will know that virtually every single time we report unemployment figures we also give the employment figure for fairness and balance. It’s also worth noting that in our heavily read online coverage we have reported on at least seven job creation stories in just the last few of weeks.

He did accept however that at times the BBC may over-emphasise or under-emphasise something.

That always ensures a lively and valuable editorial discussion in the newsroom. Very occasionally we may miss something interesting completely, though we’ll try to catch up as soon as we realise. While we understand the political context around all our business and economics reporting, our sole purpose is to report and put context around the data for the benefit of all our audiences, reflecting that there are differing points of view and analysis which may occasionally make uncomfortable reading from both sides of the political divide.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Advice on reporting statistics

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:00:38 +0000

Statistics: BBC College of Journalism reinforces the importance of getting the numbers right. First in a series of tips from the BBC. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Finance story leads from the banking crisis – some tips for journalists

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:54:54 +0000

On the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism site journalist Jodi Schneider from the American Banker, has some tips for financial journalists looking for local banking stories in the aftermath of the credit crisis .

For local publications, community banks are a good source of stories and a way to localise the financial services story playing out on the national and world stage.

While her advice focuses on American processes, the general ideas could be adapted for the UK banking scene.

Story tips include: looking at other areas of a local economy which are suffering and how they may impact on local financial institutions; or investigating banks’ capital levels to predict whether they may be in danger of regulatory action.

More general advice covers what to include in any banking story, from the size of the institution and recent earnings, to capital standings and recent regulatory actions.

See the full post here…Similar Posts:

FT.com: Thomson Reuters’ video product Insider to launch on 11 May

Laura Oliver — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:39:14 +0000

Thomson Reuters is planning to launch a series of new web products and overhaul its markets division as part of plans to streamline the company and reach growing audiences of younger, web-savvy readers and smaller business customers.

Among the developments:

An “enterprise platform” offering faster delivery of data to clients and online training and customer service support to smaller customers;
The launch of online video product Insider on May 11, which it has been testing since last year;
A new desktop platform, Eikon, to launch in autumn, offering a wider range of data and personalisation features.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

Guardian launches crowdsourced investigation into Tony Blair’s finances

Laura Oliver — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:45:11 +0000

Part crowdsourcing, part competition, the Guardian is asking readers to help them analyse financial structures set up by the former prime minister Tony Blair, which involve artificial partnerships.

The new project is similar to that run by the newspaper during the MPs expenses scandal, when readers where asked to look through and flag up points of interest on expenses claim forms.

This time there’s a competition element too: readers are asked to trawl through relevant documents and make comments and annotations. Featured contributions will be credited and readers will have the chance to win an origial cartoon by Steve Bell (deadline is 6 December).

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Hedge funds editor (Dow Jones) – Job of the week on Journalism.co.uk

Ed Martin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:11:52 +0000

Date posted: 30/09/09 00:00
Closing date: 28/10/09
Employer: Dow Jones Newswires Financial News
Salary: DoE
Location: London

Dow Jones Financial News is looking for a talented hedge funds editor. The role will involve the individual taking primary responsibility for Financial News coverage of the hedge fund industry.

Position requirements:
Generating and executing ideas for incisive, accessible articles on the hedge fund industry and its external relations. Leading the newspaper’s breaking news on hedge funds. Primary responsibility for generating the hedge funds page each week. Liaison with the events team in organising the hedge funds awards. Please email applications – including a cover letter, CV and clippings of published articles.

For more information and to apply please visit http://www.journalism.co.uk/75/articles/535975.phpSimilar Posts:

Blogs transformed mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis, Kristine Lowe argues in new book

Judith Townend — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:37:46 +0000

Institutional mainstream media constraints were both an asset and a liability during the great crash, says Norwegian blogger and journalist Kristine Lowe, in a new book published this week. She argues that blogs both transformed and challenged mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis.

‘Playing Footsie with the FTSE?‘ edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble, a collection of 20 articles by leading journalists and academics that asks why leading financial journalists and commentators failed to predict the biggest economic crisis in 70 years, is published this week by Abramis for £9.99.

Journalism.co.uk has featured several chapters from the book during the past month:

and today:

Kristine Lowe: Blogging the crash – How blogs transformed mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis

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Gillian Tett at the Frontline Club: tonight 7.30pm GMT

Judith Townend — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:44:24 +0000

This will be good. From the Frontline Club blog:

‘The credit crisis, financial journalism and scaremongering’ with Financial Times Assistant editor and journalist of the year Gillian Tett at the Frontline Club tonight. Gillian will be in discussion with BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders.

“When she picked up her prize for journalist of the year at the British Press Awards recently, the Financial Times’ Gillian Tett claimed the accolade was a vindication for ‘the geeks’ and ‘anoraks’. The assistant editor of the Financial Times has been documenting the rise of credit derivatives banking since she was appointed in 2005 to cover the the rather unglamorous capital markets patch. But it was only after the full consequences of the risks bankers had been taking became so catastrophically apparent that Gillian Tett was promoted from ‘geek’ to luminary, regularly making appearances on TV and radio.”

Watch live here at 7.30pm GMT:

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FT.com: Lionel Barber on financial journalism and the economic crisis

Laura Oliver — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:04:57 +0000

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber asks whether the media should have foreseen the global financial crisis.

At the beginning, says Barber: “Most reporters working in this so-called ‘shadow banking system’ found it hard to interest their superiors who controlled space and who were more interested in broadcasting the ‘good news’ story of rising property prices and economic growth.”

While journalists were not the only ones to ‘fall down on the job’, there were four key weaknesses in the media’s coverage of the economy in the build-up to the crash (he goes on to outline these).

But, he adds:

“Many of the most important developments of the past decade (…) have largely been unanticipated or failed to attract the attention they deserved. Journalists, in this respect, have a crucial role to play. Flawed they may be, but they still have the capacity to be the canaries in the mine. Long may it be so.”

Full article at this link…Similar Posts:

CJR: The Polis financial journalism paper dissected across the pond

Judith Townend — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:25:41 +0000

A take on the Polis paper from the States. The Columbia Journalism Review’s Dean Starkman says that the Polis’ ‘What is Financial Journalism For?’ report addresses ‘one of those big, “dumb” questions’ that he ‘finds so valuable.’

“Those kinds of questions don’t get asked much on this side of the pond. That’s too bad. Even the subject of business media’s performance in advance of the current crisis seems to be something of a taboo.

“The scant attention the subject has received has been either the once-over-lightly treatment, a la Howard Kurtz, and or an ‘all-clear’ for the business press from our cousins over at the American Journalism Review.”

Full story…Similar Posts: