Complacency and Collusion: A Critical Introduction to Business and Financial Journalism - Softcover

The growing passivity and changing bias of Western journalists is widely acknowledged. Journalism is increasingly hollowed out by writers who are no longer gathering news but rather churning out unsourced information, PR texts and snippets found online. Behind this dubious practice is an increasingly invested corporate sector whose stake in the mainstream media as a mouthpiece has exponentially increased in the last few decades.

In Complacency and Collusion, Keith J. Butterick focuses on the content and practice of financial and business journalism, giving compelling explanations for why big business needs the press and why the press needs big business. He cuts through the misreporting that has occurred since the financial crisis and makes clear the inadequacies of articles in prestigious papers and magazines, such as the Economist and Financial Times. In concluding his analysis he reflects on what the growth and spread of complacent, complicit corporate journalism will mean for the future of a free media.

Complacency and Collusion is one of the first critical studies of the field of business and financial journalism to be suitable for the graduate reader. It will serve as both a valuable teaching resource and a penetrating political commentary on contemporary journalism.

Keith J. Butterick is director of the Huddersfield Centre for Communication and Consultation Research at the University of Huddersfield and the author of Introducing Public Relations Theory and Practice (2011). He is an award winning business journalist, magazine editor and former director of a financial Public Relations consultancy.