BOQK REVIEW: Writing About Business: The New Columbia Knight-Bageho! Guide to Economics and Business Journalism, Terri Thompson, ed., NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, xxvi-422 pages.

Abstract

Writing About Business: The New Columbia Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics and Business Journalism, Terri Thompson, ed., NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, xxv+422 pages. Terri Thompson, director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at the prestigious Columbia Graduate School of Journalism when she had cobbled together the book under review, introduces its thematic content in these words: ln many ways the world has gotten smaller as developments in technology and the growth of the internet have brought us closer together. But one thing has not changed. Business and economies are complicated, and writing about them is risky. Everyday holds a chance for mistakes, misunderstandings, and misrepresentations. Therein lies the challenge presented by a field not very familiar with the general population of Bangladesh, primarily because, other than the odd exception, it is not one that is covered extensively or, more importantly, in its many intricacies, in the local media, nor one that is taught as a separate discipline in the country’s highest educational institutions, until recently, when the Media and Communication department of independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) introduced a course on Business Journalism in 2010. Thon1pson’s book should succeed in educating anyone interested in the practice of business and economics journalism, or, indeed, in just what it entails, although it is heavily biased towards the United States’ scenario.