Personal Finance For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 20. On Air and in Print

In This Chapter

• Recognizing the impact of the media and pundits on investors

• Deciding whether to tune in or tune out radio and television investing coverage

• Surfing safely on the Internet

• Evaluating newspapers and magazines

• Finding the best investing books

You don't lack options when it comes to finding radio and television news, Web sites, newspapers, magazines, and books that talk about money and purport to help you get rich. Tuning out poor resources and focusing on the best ones are the real challenges.

Because you probably don't consider yourself a financial expert, more often than not you won't know who to believe and listen to. I help you solve that problem in this chapter.

Observing the Mass Media

For better and for worse, America's mass media has a profound influence on our culture. On the good side, news is widely disseminated these days. So if a product is recalled or a dangerous virus breaks out in your area, you'll probably hear about it, perhaps more than you want to, through the media — or perhaps from tuned-in family members!

The downsides of the mass media are plenty, though.

Alarming or informing us?

In case you didn't already know, you've recently lived through the second Great Depression. During the "financial crisis" of 2008-09, we were told over and over and over again how it was the worst economy and worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Endless parallels were drawn between the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recently ...