In the study of physics there is an experience called 'The Observer Effect'. Often (wrongly, he says, sounding like Stephen Fry on QI) known as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle it can be paraphrased simply - the very act of observing an event will change it.

"The media are talking us into a recession" has been a common refrain in the last six months or so. We're the ones that have made pretty meaningless phrases like 'credit crunch' into household sayings and we've loved every minute of this crisis and have therefore made it all much worse.

Is this true? It's certainly the case that the 24-hour media has a way of whipping up non-stories into earth-shattering events - just ask Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand - so I certainly wouldn't deny that, but the last thing a financial meltdown can be defined as is a 'non-story'.

The real question is whether the media is predetermining the outcome of news such as a financial crisis by endlessly speculating the outcome one way or another rather than simply reporting the facts. If doom and gloom is a better story (which it is) then do we want and push for doom and gloom to happen?

It's definitely a tricky call for any editor and we get it wrong sometimes, but on the whole I believe it's our responsibility to report, analyse and provoke debate rather than lead the agenda. It's easy to say the media has talked us into a recession but that's like saying the media has talked the US into voting for Barack Obama. We've been swept along by prevailing winds that no one could stop once they'd started blowing.

So there's a real a cop out in accusing the media of 'talking' everyone into a recession.The flipside is that by saying it you're also accusing 'everyone' of being incredibly gullible and easily manipulated - which certainly isn't true.

The media really isn't that clever either. Daily news is a hodge podge of opinion, forecasting, fact, contradiction and hypocrisy. On the whole, we don't have agendas or plans to topple fat cats or heads of state. If we did Kerry Katona wouldn't fill quite as many column inches. What we predict one day can be completely contradicted the next depending on which way the story has turned out.

What we do have is a desire to see a beginning, middle and end to every story and that's our real downfall - the beginning and the middle are fine, but we get frustrated when there's no end in sight. It's at this stage that the story becomes the story, in other words 'the storm over XXX continues" and opportunistic politicians get involved as they can smell a headline to raise their own profile.

But, as I say, this only becomes tangible when non-stories become big stories either because there's nothing else happening or interest from the public (as opposed to 'in the public interest') becomes so high that it can't be ignored. Then the media looks for its ending - usually a sacking or 'spending more time with the family'.

As I write this there is a 'storm' over the fate of John Sergeant on Strictly Come Dancing and while it's fun no one in their right mind can think it's actually important in any way so yes, the media does get carried away with making headlines out of trivia.

But banking groups collapsing, runs on the pound, interest rate slashes, recession, credit crunches and slowdowns? Thanks for thinking we're that influential but even the media can't make that kind of thing happen.

So the debate we've had at kbbreview is whether we're guilty of talking the industry down if we write lots of storeis about companies going bust or doom-laden reports from analysts about the future. If we say it's going badly, does that make it more likely to go badly? If you on the front line are going through bad times, do you feel disenfranchised from us if you read that everything is fine when your own order book tells you it isn't?

It's a call we have to make every day but our opinions are in part formed by you honestly telling us your experiences. However many people are naturally cautious about saying that times are tough and that can make us sceptical. If everyone who has told us that they're 'bucking the trend' is telling the truth then you have to wonder why the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom market is totally immune while everyone else is suffering. 

So, you tell us, what's really happening? What's the real state of the market?

The only thing the media is really interested in , and that includes us, is reporting and analysing the truth. That's not just journalists getting on their moral high horse (if you can picture such a thing), it's the best business plan for us. The more people respect what we write, then the more loyal readers we have, and the more loyal readers we have - let's be honest - the more advertisers want to reach them.

So here's my call to action - join the debate with clarity and honesty and everyone will benefit from a genuinely true picture.

Andrew Davies, editor, kbbreview
andrew@kbbreview.com