There is a program at the School of Journalism of New York University called Business and Economic Reporting. Now, you don’t have to be Austrian to deplore the state of literacy in economics in most reporting that bears on the subject, so it’s good to see that such a subject has received the attention implied by the establishment of a defined program at none other than the university at which Ludwig von Mises himself held his last (unpaid) post. For most people, what they “know” about economics is what they hear and in a few cases read in the mainstream media. If, however, this trend involves dissemination of mainstream, statist economics among the journalistic class, the development may end up having little value, or even negative value.
It all depends on what is the content of the courses and, of course, how well the students acquire, apply, and continue to develop it. This judgement may start with an examination of the curriculum of the program, to which the link above leads. While the impression it gives is modest, it seems at least potentially a movement in the right direction. There may be similar programs at other institutions, but NYU’s is presumably among the larger, or older ones. I think I’d be more pleased, overall, to see development of a journalism program in schools of business and economics. This might lead to a question I’d love to hear more often: is the reporter a journalist or an economist?
