Social Agenda Issue 54

New season for “Real Economy” TV show A Euronews programme that often takes a social angle to make macroeconomics easier to grasp ”Wage inequality, Europe’s ticking time bomb”, “Workers’ rights transformed - ensuring social protection”, “The future of work”… Every two weeks, the pan-European news network Euronews broadcasts in 14 languages a macro-economic show called “Real Economy”, which regularly features employment and social affairs issues. Unique in its kind, Real Economy was created in 2013 by Maithreyi Seetharaman, a journalist who had previously worked in the United States, India, Australia and Europe, for outlets such as CNBC and Bloomberg. Until August 2018, she was Real Economics’ executive editor and anchor. She produced over 70 episodes, 16 of which addressed employment and social issues, over five seasons of the show. This year, season 6 tackles the free movement of workers and social security coordination, the future of work and health and safety (reducing carcinogenic and mutagenic substances at the work place) among other issues. Economics versus business “I am a political economist by training”, Maithreyi explains. “I was a bit tired of covering equity and bond markets and decided to take a year off from being an anchor at CNBC, where I used to host the Squawk Box Europe show. Euronews asked me if I wanted to do something different. And after a couple of discussions with Gardenia Trezzini, the network’s editor in chief of magazines, we came up with the idea of doing a macroeconomic show: making macroeconomics simple for everyday people, without making it stupid!”. Maithreyi insists on the distinction between economic and business news. “When you talk economics to someone in a coffee shop, or to someone who runs a small business, the assumption usually is that they will think: ‘I don’t invest or it’s not something I am investing in!'. So if people think it doesn’t impact their wallet, why would they be interested?’”. “I sometimes find that people on the networks talk to each other with jargon and at an academic, elite level and the information never trickles down in a way that people can understand. The simplest way to do that, is to make it concrete for the people watching”. “Over the last two years, you can see populism rise. If we are not talking to the people who are going to vote, then we are failing. It is crucial to show people that every decision made by them or by their political leadership actually does matter and has an impact on their life". "I saw people’s houses being foreclosed and people losing their jobs in the United States, during the 2008 crisis. This brought home to me that we keep talking in silos: We’re talking to each other and not talking to the people we think we are. We aren’t showing them that the crisis could happen again. And it is happening again!”. MEDIA Maithrey Seetharaman: “If I am talking about inflation, I will make it a social topic because it is easier to explain that way”. © Facultas Media Limited 6 / SOC I A L AG E NDA / MA R C H 2 0 1 9