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Mark my words: the transmission of central bank communication to the general public via the print media

Author

Listed:
  • Munday, Tim

    (University of Oxford)

  • Brookes, James

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

We ask how central banks can change their communication in order to receive greater newspaper coverage. We write down a model of news production and consumption in which news generation is endogenous because the central bank must draft its communication in such a way that newspapers choose to report it, while still retaining the message the central bank wishes to convey to the public. We use our model to show that standard econometric techniques that correlate central bank text with measures of news coverage in order to determine what causes central bank communication to be reported on will likely prove to be biased. We use techniques from computational linguistics combined with an event-study methodology to measure the extent of news coverage a central bank communication receives, and the textual features that might cause a communication to be more (or less) likely to be considered newsworthy. We consider the case of the Bank of England, and estimate the relationship between news coverage and central bank communication implied by our model. We find that the interaction between the state of the economy and the way in which the Bank of England writes its communication is important for determining news coverage. We provide concrete suggestions for ways in which central bank communication can increase its news coverage by improving readability in line with our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Munday, Tim & Brookes, James, 2021. "Mark my words: the transmission of central bank communication to the general public via the print media," Bank of England working papers 944, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0944
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Stolbov, Mikhail & Shchepeleva, Maria & Karminsky, Alexander, 2022. "When central bank research meets Google search: A sentiment index of global financial stress," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Piotr Turek, 2023. "Bezrobocie, inflacja i wzrost gospodarczy w świetle polityki informacyjnej Narodowego Banku Polskiego," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 54(5), pages 499-518.
    4. Angino, Siria & Robitu, Robert, 2023. "One question at a time! A text mining analysis of the ECB Q&A session," Working Paper Series 2852, European Central Bank.
    5. Baerg, Nicole Rae & Krainin, Colin, 2022. "Divided committees and strategic vagueness," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Central bank communication; print media; high-dimensional estimation; natural language processing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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