Simplifying financial reports for the average news consumer: a study of some South African newspapers

Abstract

This article investigates the perceived accessibility of business news in some South African newspapers of which the target reader is the average consumer of news in a predominantly black readership market. A sample of readers and editors/journalists were interviewed as part of an explorative, qualitative research design. The respondents were of the opinion that newspapers, such as City Press, Sowetan and Sunday World, fail to write business articles that are easily understandable because the financial jargon used in stories confounds the average news consumer. However, 95% of the respondents agreed that the business section of Daily Sun uses simple language in its reporting. It is argued that a new set of guidelines to report business or financial news is needed to rectify the status quo. Eight guidelines for reporting business news for the average news consumer are proposed.