Professor Alecia Swasy Publishes Textbook on Financial Literacy The book provides media professionals with the savvy they need to navigate the world of finance and money.

By Louise Uffelman
July 27, 2020

Alecia Swasy, Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Business Journalism at Washington and Lee University, has published “A Wall Street Guidebook for Journalism and Strategic Communication” (Routledge).

Swasy, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, interviewed dozens of business reporters and public relations experts to pull together case studies that illustrate how Wall Street operates and how to best approach the world of money and finance.

“Modern business journalism and corporate public relations have common roots dating back to the early 1900s when Ida Tarbell’s investigative reporting revealed Standard Oil’s anti-competitive practices,” Swasy said of the series that fueled the 1911 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to break up John D. Rockefeller’s monopoly.

She added, “Today’s Journalism and Strategic Communication students at W&L and elsewhere can use this book to understand how both of their professions continue to have symbiotic relationships with today’s corporate American titans.”

The textbook breaks down essential skills, such as how to read key financial statements, find and interpret key data on companies, and employ that research in crafting compelling stories and messages for both readers and clients. The book also covers the scorekeepers and watchdogs of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission, how to avoid illegal activity in reporting and research, understanding mergers and acquisitions, and the history and current state of Wall Street.

Susanne Craig, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, said the book “should be essential reading for every aspiring reporter in America. Money is at the heart of almost everything we write about, politics, business, sports, crime and often even love. Alecia Swasy’s book is a page turner. She covers the basics of business reporting and so much more thanks to the rare access she had to the country’s top business reporters and editors.”

Swasy is the author of three other books: “How Journalists Use Twitter: The Changing Landscape of U.S. Newsrooms,” “Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble,” and “Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company.”

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