This blog post discusses how to view and interpret the information within economic news articles, focusing on the perspective readers should adopt.
The Economy Speaks Through News Articles
This blog post aims to discuss the perspective for reading economic news articles. The primary economic actors are households, businesses, and the government. While some include foreign entities as a fourth actor, this blog will focus on the three core actors. The economy functions smoothly when these three actors interact and fulfill their respective roles effectively. It would be ideal if they frequently met and communicated directly, but this rarely happens. Instead, they use articles as a means to convey their intentions. While social media is increasingly used, articles and news still provide more organized information. This is evident simply by observing that more people search for news or articles related to topics of interest than those who follow every corporate or government agency’s social media and meticulously review all their posts to gather information.
Economic articles aren’t necessarily good
The main advantage of articles is that they provide easy-to-digest, refined information. Press releases issued by governments or companies are often very difficult to read as-is. This is because they prioritize accuracy over accessibility. If readers misunderstand due to figurative language or selective information, it can cause embarrassment.
Articles aren’t necessarily good either. The drawbacks are also clear. Because they simplify information, articles can be interpreted differently than what the government or company intended. This ultimately depends on the skill of the journalist and the media outlet. However, in the mobile era where articles are posted and read in real-time, the filtering function of journalists and media has significantly diminished. Readers are inevitably forced to select and filter information themselves. If a reader’s critical reading skills are lacking, distorted content can spread.
Media outlets may also align with the interests of specific entities. Take newspapers as an example. Newspaper subscription rates continue to decline rapidly. This drop in subscriptions can be seen as a reduction in advertising effectiveness. Advertisers pay newspapers to place ads, but the impact of those ads is less than it once was. In this situation, some newspapers exaggerate or sensationalize content desired by specific companies or public institutions to maintain their influence. This is an extreme measure where journalists and media focus more on grabbing users’ attention than adhering to journalism’s traditional role. They even deliberately write articles favoring one side for profit. Therefore, readers need to scrutinize articles more critically.
“Our family’s life is ruined”… Real estate YouTubers facing backlash amid falling home prices ( 《KBS》, 2022.10.29.)
The article above is about YouTubers who were treated like top-tier tutors sharing secrets to success when housing prices soared, only to be treated like cult leaders once the real estate market started declining. Originally, newspapers were the easiest medium for ordinary people to obtain new information. Over time, this shifted to online articles appearing on portal sites, and recently, it has been replaced by YouTube videos explaining the information. Young people in their 20s and 30s already use YouTube, not portal sites, as their primary search window. It’s also noteworthy that the YouTube channels they use to get information are shifting from those operated by traditional media to channels run by famous influencers.
Unlike text-only news or video news that only skims the surface, YouTube’s strength lies in taking sufficient time to explain things using a friendly tone and expressions, enhanced by colorful screen compositions. Compared to text news, it requires almost no effort to interpret the information, and the algorithm continuously recommends content the user might be interested in.
Users need only click a few times and nod along
However, clear disadvantages exist. It can lead to a loss of the ability to interpret information independently and verify whether that interpretation is correct. Blaming YouTube’s algorithm alone isn’t sufficient. Given YouTube’s revenue structure based on view counts, creators naturally emerge who produce sensational and exaggerated content to grab attention (though, of course, excellent and beneficial high-quality YouTube channels also exist). Users are easily drawn to provocative content, and in the process, the influence of certain YouTubers grows.
Whether YouTube can be used as a source of good information depends entirely on the user who hears and judges that information. To effectively filter out distorted or exaggerated information, one shouldn’t just follow the algorithm’s recommendations but should explore channels offering diverse perspectives. Getting hooked by clickbait titles and flashy visuals clouds your judgment. Remember: whatever channel you listen to, whatever story you hear, and whatever decision you make—the consequences affect not the YouTuber’s assets, but your own. YouTube’s influence shows no signs of waning. That’s why we must view it with even greater detachment.
Economics is a psychological battle
If the human heart and brain operated in a digital, binary fashion of 0s and 1s, we could make judgments based solely on data. But blood flows through our bodies. Sometimes we get excited and our blood surges; other times our heart rate slows and we calm down. Because of this, it’s not easy to act purely rationally, completely devoid of emotion.
Even when reading the same economic article, people react differently. Some follow the article’s lead, while others do not. When an article claims the economy will move eastward, many readers flock eastward even if it doesn’t actually move that way. Conversely, if many think, ‘Since the article said it’s moving east, I should go west,’ the crowd may instead surge westward.
I used east and west as examples, but the economy doesn’t actually move in just one direction. Therefore, people can offer countless opinions based on their individual positions, circumstances, and perspectives. At such times, the most foolish person is the one who unconditionally agrees with or opposes the article’s claims, regardless of their own position or goals. When encountering economic news or articles, always keep this point in mind.
