This article reports the findings of a comparative study of the financial news produced by companies, financial analysts, financial newspapers and news agencies about the same news events, including data before and after the financial crisis. We ground this study in second-level agenda-setting, according to which news producers select substantive and evaluative attributes for the issues they cover. Using computer-assisted text analysis, we conduct pairwise comparisons of the evaluative tone of corporate quarterly earnings press releases and the corresponding analyst reports and news stories. Our overall hypothesis is that these actors produce news about the same events with an evaluative tone that furthers their own goals as well as the goals of those actors they are dependent on, which we find partial support for. We find a positivity bias in corporate earnings press releases and analyst reports, while financial journalists eliminate the corporate positivity bias, but do not add more negativity. The results also indicate differences in the tone of financial news before and after the financial crisis. Although all actors produce news in the period after the financial crisis that is less positive and less negative than before the crisis, the balance of positive and negative tone as well as relative differences among the actors suggest that news writing by financial journalists at financial newspapers and news agencies is more negative in tone after the financial crisis, thus providing also empirical support of their independence.

本文报告了对公司，金融分析师，金融报纸和新闻社针对相同新闻事件（包括金融危机前后的数据）产生的金融新闻进行比较研究的结果。我们将这项研究作为第二阶段议程的基础，根据新闻发布者的报道内容，新闻生产者应选择实质性和评估性属性。使用计算机辅助的文本分析，我们对公司季度收入新闻发布以及相应的分析师报告和新闻报道的评估基调进行成对比较。我们的总体假设是，这些行为者以评价性的语调发布有关同一事件的新闻，从而推动了他们自己的目标以及他们所依赖的那些参与者的目标，我们对此表示部分支持。我们在公司收益的新闻稿和分析师报告中发现了积极的偏见，而财经记者则消除了公司的积极偏见，但并没有增加更多的消极情绪。结果还表明，在金融危机之前和之后，金融新闻的语调有所不同。尽管所有参与者在金融危机之后产生的新闻都比金融危机之前的正面和负面新闻要少，但正面和负面语气的平衡以及参与者之间的相对差异表明，金融记者在金融报纸和报纸上撰写的新闻金融危机过后，新闻通讯社的语气更加消极，因此也为它们的独立性提供了经验支持。但不要增加负面影响。结果还表明，在金融危机之前和之后，金融新闻的语调有所不同。尽管所有参与者在金融危机之后产生的新闻都比危机之前少积极和消极，但正负之间的平衡以及各参与者之间的相对差异表明，金融记者在金融报纸和新闻媒体上撰写的新闻金融危机过后，新闻通讯社的语气更加消极，因此也为它们的独立性提供了经验支持。但不要增加负面影响。结果还表明，在金融危机之前和之后，金融新闻的语调有所不同。尽管所有参与者在金融危机之后产生的新闻都比金融危机之前的正面和负面新闻要少，但正面和负面语气的平衡以及参与者之间的相对差异表明，金融记者在金融报纸和报纸上撰写的新闻金融危机过后，新闻通讯社的语气更加消极，因此也为它们的独立性提供了经验支持。