"The news media affects consumers' perceptions of the economy through three channels. First, the news media conveys the latest economic data and the opinions of professionals to consumers. Second, consumers receive a signal about the economy through the tone and volume of economic reporting....

We formalize the editorial role of news media in a multi-sector economy and show that media can be an independent source of business cycle fluctuations, even when the information they report is accurate. Our approach tightly links agents' beliefs to real economic developments and allows for...

We construct simple indices based on newspaper mentions of the word ``recession'' and show they are useful coincident and leading indicators of U.S. economic activity. These indices compare favourably, both in-sample and out-of-sample, with other business-cycle predictors. Importantly,...