Economist: Some critics of the media have contended that negative news reports on the state of the economy can actually harm the economy because such reports damage people' s confidence in it, and this lack of confidence in turn adversely affects people' s willingness to spend money  But studies show that spending trends correlate very closely with people' s confidence in their own immediate economic situations
Thus these media critics are mistaken
people who pay no attention to economic reports in the media always judge accurately whether their own economic situation is likely to deteriorate or improve