ABSTRACT
Journalists play an integral role in the mediation of financial crises, not least the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007/8 and the fallout that followed in the form of the age of austerity. This chapter explores criticisms received by financial journalists that they lacked scepticism in their reporting of the GFC and previous crises; that they perpetually use the same elite sources for information; and that they have reported on neoliberal policy-making with little critique. In doing so, this chapter contributes to the growing body of research into the nature and modus operandi of mainstream financial journalism through interviews with practitioners in the US, UK, and Australia. Moreover, it discusses commercial challenges in the business model for journalism, which it finds are exacerbating trends that see journalists (among other things) reporting optimistically on events for fear of being a Cassandra and avoiding academics as sources of information.
