How much of this financial crisis has been caused by the 'gloom and doom' media?

yea i have a feeling that the increasing cost of credit, failure of several large financial institutions, etc. etc. is all caused by the media. yep.

I think the media is definitely contributing to the crisis. Though there was already a problem. Every time you turn on the TV, open up a newspaper, or visit a website you are shown story after story about how horrible the economy is and how much trouble we are in. People get even more nervous because they are constantly subjected to this "doom and gloom". So I think it's really building on the other, the media reports that it's bad which makes people nervous so the economy gets worse, the media jumps on that and reports it, and so on.