I'm always leery when media begins to tout a new word. Maybe economic contraction has some history to it and a precise definition, but maybe its being coopted or is void and ready to fill with whatever new line of rhetoric we will soon be assaulted with. Would be great to have a headlines database to see trending terms and when something is really unprecedented in headlines.
This happens every decade or thereabouts, and there is a large body of work in economics about the "business cycle", why it happens and what if anything can be done about it.