While global financial journalism has grown substantially in recent decades, little is known about journalists’ perceptions of the key players in this news ecosystem. This study draws from research into social group hierarchies and prestige media to explore this question within the United States, the largest market for financial journalists. A national survey of financial journalists (n = 349) shows that The Wall Street Journal and Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times are perceived as the most influential financial media outlet and journalist, respectively. However, financial journalists are not a monolithic entity in terms of their perceptions of the leaders in the field. Some differences exist among the respondents as a function of their demographic and work-related characteristics. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
AgrestiA (2013) Categorical Data Analysis, 3rd edn.Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
2.
AndersonCKilduffGJ (2009a) The pursuit of status in social groups. Current Directions in Psychological Science18(5): 295–298. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01655.x.
3.
AndersonCKilduffGJ (2009b) Why do dominant personalities attain influence in face-to-face groups? The competence-signaling effects of trait dominance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology96(2): 491–503. DOI:10.1037/a0014201.
4.
BeckerLBVladT (2009) News organizations and routines. In: Wahl-JorgensenKHanitzschT (eds) The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 59–72.
5.
BensonR (2006) News media as a ‘journalistic field’: What Bourdieu adds to new institutionalism, and vice versa. Political Communication23(2): 187–202. DOI:10.1080/10584600600629802.
6.
BerkowitzD (1993) Work roles and news selection in local TV: Examining the business-journalism dialectic. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media37(1): 67–81. DOI:10.1080/08838159309364204.
7.
BikhchandaniSHirshleiferDWelchI (1988) Learning from the behavior of others: Conformity, fads, and informational cascades. Journal of Economic Perspectives12(3): 151–170. DOI:10.1257/jep.12.3.151.
8.
BikhchandaniSHirshleiferDWelchI (1992) A theory of fads, fashion, custom, and cultural change as informational cascades. Journal of Political Economy100(5): 992–1026. DOI:10.1086%2F261849.
9.
BoczkowskiPJ (2010) News at Work: Imitation in an Age of Information Abundance. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
10.
BourdieuP (2005) The political field, the social science field, and the journalistic field. In: BensonRNeveuE (eds) Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 29–47.
11.
BradyR (2003) Makeover: CNBC fell from grace when the bubble burst. How does it look now?Columbia Journalism Review42(4): 50–51.
12.
BreedW (1955) Social control in the newsroom. Social Forces33(4): 326–355. DOI:10.2307%2F2573002.
13.
BrownleeBJBeamRA (2012) U.S. journalist in the tumultuous early years of the 21st century. In: WeaverDHWillnatL (eds) The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. New York: Routledge, pp. 348–362.
14.
CarrollC (ed.) (2011) Corporate Reputation and the News Media. New York: Routledge.
15.
CassidyWP (2007) Online news credibility: An examination of the perceptions of newspaper journalists. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication12(2): 478–498. DOI:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00334.x.
16.
ChengJTTracyJLFoulshamT. (2013) Two ways to the top: Evidence that dominance and prestige are distinct yet viable avenues to social rank and influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology104(1): 103–125. DOI:10.1037/a0030398.
17.
ChozikABarbaroM (2012) Bloomberg weighs making bid for The Financial Times. The New York Times, 9December. Available at: http://nyti.ms/WWOReV (accessed 27 February 2013).
18.
CrouseT (2003) The Boys on the Bus. New York: Ballantine Books.
19.
DavisA (2000) Public relations, business news and the reproduction of corporate elite power. Journalism1(3): 282–304. DOI:10.1177/146488490000100301.
DiMaggioPJPowellW (1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organization fields. American Sociological Review48(2): 147–160.
22.
DominickJR (1981) Business coverage in network newscasts. Journalism Quarterly58(2): 179–191. DOI:10.1177/107769908105800201.
DoyleG (2006) Financial news journalism: A post-Enron analysis of approaches towards economic and financial news production in the UK. Journalism7(4): 433–452. DOI:10.1177/1464884906068361.
25.
DuYR (2013) Intermedia agenda-setting in the age of globalization: A multinational agenda-setting test. Global Media and Communication9(1): 19–36. DOI:10.1177/1742766512463038.
FilakVF (2004) Cultural convergence: Intergroup bias among journalists and its impact on convergence. Atlantic Journal of Communication12(4): 216–232. DOI:10.1207/s15456889ajc1204_3.
28.
GansHJ (1979) Deciding What’s News. New York: Pantheon Books.
29.
GolanG (2006) Inter-media agenda setting and global news coverage: Assessing the influence of the New York Times on three television evening news programs. Journalism Studies7(2): 323-334. DOI:10.1080/14616700500533643.
30.
HanitzschTMelladoC (2011) What shapes the news around the world? How journalists in eighteen countries perceive influences on their work. International Journal of Press-Politics16(3): 404–426. DOI:10.1177/1940161211407334.
31.
HanuschF (2012) Travel journalists’ attitudes toward public relations: Findings from a representative survey. Public Relations Review38(1): 69–75. DOI:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.10.001.
32.
HenrichJGil-WhiteFJ (2001) The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior22(3): 165–196. DOI:10.1016/S1090-5138(00)00071-4.
33.
HenriquesD (2000) What journalists should be doing about business coverage – But aren’t. Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics5(2): 118–121. DOI:10.1162/108118000569038.
34.
KaplowitzMDHadlockTDLevineR (2004) A comparison of web and mail survey response rates. Public Opinion Quarterly68(1): 94–101. DOI:10.1093/poq/nfh006.
35.
KeuschF (2012) How to increase response rates in list-based web survey samples. Social Science Computer Review30(3): 380–388. DOI:10.1177/0894439311409709.
36.
KjaerPLangerR (2005) Infused with news value: Management, managerial knowledge and the institutionalization of business news. Scandinavian Journal of Management21(2): 209–233. DOI:10.1016/j.scaman.200.02.012.
37.
KohutA (1986) Rating the polls: The views of media elites and the general public. Public Opinion Quarterly50(1): 1–10. DOI:10.1086/268954.
38.
KoikkalainenK (2007) The local and the international in Russian business journalism: Structures and practices. Europe-Asia Studies59(8): 1315–1329. DOI:10.1080/09668130701655176.
39.
KurtzH (2001) The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street’s Game of Money, Media and Manipulation. New York: Touchstone.
40.
LiebermanMBAsabaS (2006) Why do firms imitate each other?Academy of Management Review31(2): 366–385. DOI:10.5465/AMR.2006.20208686.
41.
McCombsMHolbertRLKiousisS. (2011) The News and Public Opinion: Media Effects on Civic Life. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
42.
MachinDNiblockS (2010) The new breed of business journalism for niche global news: The case of Bloomberg News. Journalism Studies11(6): 783–798. DOI:10.1080/14616701003760543.
43.
MageeJCGalinskyAD (2008) Social hierarchy: The self-reinforcing nature of power and status. Academy of Management Annals2(1): 351–398. DOI:10.1080/19416520802211628.
44.
OberlechnerTHockingS (2004) Information sources, news, and rumors in financial markets: Insights into the foreign exchange market. Journal of Economic Psychology25: 407–424. DOI:10.1016/S0167-4870(02)00189-7.
45.
ÖrnebringH (2010) Technology and journalism-as-labour: Historical perspectives. Journalism11(1): 57–74. DOI:10.1177/1464884909350644.
RagasMW (2014) Intermedia agenda setting in business news coverage. In: HartR (ed.) Communication and Language Analysis in the Public Sphere. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global, pp. 332–354.
48.
ReeseSDDanielianLH (1994) Intermedia influence and the drug issue: Converging on cocaine. In: ShoemakerP (ed) Communication Campaigns against Drugs: Government, Media and the Public. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 47–66.
49.
ReichZHanitzschT (2013) Determinants of journalists’ professional autonomy: Individual and national level factors matter more than organizational ones. Mass Communication and Society16(1): 133–156. DOI:10.1080/15205436.2012.669002.
50.
RoushC (2009) Unheeded warnings. American Journalism Review, December/January. Available at: http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=5023 (accessed 29 December 2012).
51.
RoushC (2011) Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication, 2nd edn.New York: Routledge.
52.
SABEW (2013) SABEW poll: Majority of business journalists have seen a pay raise in the past year. Available at: http://sabew.org/?s=salary+survey (accessed 11 October 2013).
53.
ShermanG (2009) The information broker. New York Magazine, 8November. Available at: http://nymag.com/news/media/61870/ (accessed 27 March 2013).
54.
ShoemakerPJReeseSD (1996) Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content, 2nd edn.White Plains, NY: Longman.
55.
ShoemakerPJVosTPReeseSD (2009) Journalists as gatekeepers. In: Wahl-JorgensenKHanitzschT (eds) The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 73–87.
56.
ShrikhandeS (2004) Business news channels in Asia: Strategies and challenges. Asian Journal of Communication14(1): 38–52. DOI:10.1080/01292988042000195143.
57.
SigalVS (1973) Reporters and Officials. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company.
58.
StarkmanD (2009) Power problem: The business press did everything but take on the institutions that brought down the financial system. Columbia Journalism Review48(1): 24–30.
59.
StelterB (2011) Market ills give CNBC a bounce. The New York Times, 14August. Available at: http://nyti.ms/1bh4aL0 (accessed 27February2012).
60.
StroudNJLeeJK (2013) Perceptions of cable news credibility. Mass Communication and Society16(1): 67–88. DOI:10.1080/15205436.2011.646449.
61.
TambiniD (2010) What are financial journalists for?Journalism Studies11(2): 158–174. DOI:10.1080/14616700903378661.
62.
TkacikM (2009) Waiting for CNBC: A tragicomedy in one long act. Columbia Journalism Review48(1): 35–39.
63.
TuchmanG (1972) Objectivity as strategic ritual: An examination of newsmen’s notions of objectivity. American Journal of Sociology77(4): 660–679. DOI:10.2307/2776752.
64.
TuchmanG (1978) Making News. New York: Free Press.
65.
UsherN (2013) Ignored, uninterested, and the blame game: How The New York Times, Marketplace, and TheStreet distanced themselves from preventing the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Journalism14(2): 190–207. DOI:10.1177/1464884912455904.
66.
WeaverDHWillnatL (eds) (2012) The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. New York: Routledge.
67.
WeaverDHBeamRABrownleeBJ. (2007) The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
68.
YuR (2013) ‘Financial Times’ moves to single global edition. USA Today, 9October. Available at: http://usat.ly/1fZHUsl (accessed 11 October 2013).
