Business and economic reporting

I have heard a thousand times that we journalism students had better have a minor major, which at best we are interested in. We need knowledge in some specialties to stand us out when the competition is fiercer and fiercer in the media world. And one guest speaker once gave us a suggestion: business and economy, the two fields that will never vanish, but prosper.

Every time I read the New York Times, I skip the business block, even though I know the information there is importantly connected to our daily life. But it is the stereotype that keeps me away from the stories: business and economic reporting must be filled with tons of boring figures, which make the stories confounding and not understandable. Also, in my previous opinion, business and economic reporting is all about GDP, rude oil price fluctuation and inflation. But after browsing the latest business block of the Time, I found the concept of business enlarged: the iPod or iPhone in your pocket, canned good and condoms, Youtube, Bollywood and its movie industry...All those hot topics can be included in business and economic reporting. Sounds more fun?

I read the story in the Time: What Sells in a Recession: Canned Goods and Condoms. I try to trace back how the reporter formed up this story idea when there were no hard facts in this story. We all know we are in the midst of a bad economy period and hear about layoffs almost everyday. But what else can we cover during this time besides the frustrating news? Watching and thinking about the world more carefully, we may come up with some curious ideas about trivial details in the life, like when we are wandering in a Wal-mart supercenter. But most of the time, we only focus on shopping. We ignore the possible story ideas only because we lack discovering eyes.

Business is everywhere, and business reporting can be interesting and inviting.

I like the words in the introduction of the Business and Economic reporting class in NYU: to be a great reporter, no matter what you [end up covering, you have to be able to follow the money.