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by Sharon Dunwoody and Robert J. Griffin, ''Science Communication'', August 2013 | by Sharon Dunwoody and Robert J. Griffin, ''Science Communication'', August 2013 | ||
The authors say, "Journalism schools, long heralded as the most obvious locations for professional communication training, should be replete with numeracy and statistical instruction. But they are not." The article describes results from a pair of surveys conducted by the authors, one in 1997 and one in 2008, which asked chairs and directors of journalism schools about efforts in this area. Unfortunately, they found that little progress had been made during the decade in between. | The authors say, "Journalism schools, long heralded as the most obvious locations for professional communication training, should be replete with numeracy and statistical instruction. But they are not." The article describes results from a pair of surveys conducted by the authors, one in 1997 and one in 2008, which asked chairs and directors of journalism schools about efforts in this area. Unfortunately, they found that little progress had been made during the decade in between. What they call the "we-value-the-topic-but-do-not-provide-it gap" had remained essentially unchanged. | ||
The article cites one specific example what can go wrong in reporting. In a January 16, 2007 story based on US Census data, the ''New York Times'' reported that [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16census.html?pagewanted=all 51% of women are now living without spouse]. This had to be corrected in a February 11 followup by the ''NYT'' public editor, which asked [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/opinion/11pubed.html?pagewanted=all Can a 15-year-old be a ‘woman without a spouse’?]. It turns out that the dramatic finding in the original story, namely that a majority of women were living without spouses, hinged on the inclusion of 15- to 17-year olds in the pool. Dunwoody and Griffin describe this as a case in which the arithmetic (computing percentages) was correct, but the original report showed a failure in reasoning. | |||
Revision as of 19:20, 22 August 2013
False positives at NSA
Priscilla Bremser sent a link to the following:
Statistical training for journalists
Bob Griffin (who attended at one of the original Dartmouth Chance Workshops in the 1990s!) sent a link to the following:
Statistical reasoning in journalism education
by Sharon Dunwoody and Robert J. Griffin, Science Communication, August 2013
The authors say, "Journalism schools, long heralded as the most obvious locations for professional communication training, should be replete with numeracy and statistical instruction. But they are not." The article describes results from a pair of surveys conducted by the authors, one in 1997 and one in 2008, which asked chairs and directors of journalism schools about efforts in this area. Unfortunately, they found that little progress had been made during the decade in between. What they call the "we-value-the-topic-but-do-not-provide-it gap" had remained essentially unchanged.
The article cites one specific example what can go wrong in reporting. In a January 16, 2007 story based on US Census data, the New York Times reported that 51% of women are now living without spouse. This had to be corrected in a February 11 followup by the NYT public editor, which asked Can a 15-year-old be a ‘woman without a spouse’?. It turns out that the dramatic finding in the original story, namely that a majority of women were living without spouses, hinged on the inclusion of 15- to 17-year olds in the pool. Dunwoody and Griffin describe this as a case in which the arithmetic (computing percentages) was correct, but the original report showed a failure in reasoning.