A couple of years ago I wrote a chapter for a book designed to teach journalists something about economics: Milne, Don and John Savage (1999)Reporting Economics: A New Zealand Guide to Covering the Economy (Wellington: Journalists Training Organisation).
I presume that the book is not available in the US, but the topics it covers could give you some ideas: Section 1: Reporting on economics The Journalist's role Section 2: Background and introduction What is economics Basic principles of economics A history of the NZ economy Competing approaches to macroeconomic policy Why economists disagree Economics and Politics Section 3: Economic Issues and Topics Economic growth and efficinecy Income distribution and equity Monetary policy Fiscal policy International trade and investment Business sector issues Household sector issues Labour markets Economics and social policy Section 4: Practical advice Economic forecasting Economic data and statistics Information sources Glossary of economic terms Another idea could be to do what Paul Heyne used to do and keep a "what makes me mad" file of cuttings showing poor economic undertanding by the press, and using that as the basis for discussion. -----Original Message----- From: Alex Tabarrok [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, 3 February 2003 8:05 a.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Advise to Journalists I will be giving a 15-20 minute talk to a bunch of journalists and proto-journalists ( most of them are editors of student university newspapers) about what economics has to offer journalism. I am interested in the suggestions of list members as to what the most important lessons economics has to teach. I have a number of thoughts myself, of course, including comparative advantage (veneer of competition hides much cooperation) public choice (qui bono? look for the organized exploiting the unorganized) tradeoffs/all good are economic goods (e.g. safety) amazing economic/business stories that are not told (I have in mind here "I Pencil"/"How Paris is Fed" stories about the great complexities of modern markets that people take for granted. Other ideas? Thoughts? Specific examples? Alex -- Alexander Tabarrok Department of Economics, MSN 1D3 George Mason University Fairfax, VA, 22030 Tel. 703-993-2314 Web Page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~atabarro/ and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621 Tel. 510-632-1366
