As perhaps the only Asian in the world who can’t do math, I appreciate sites that critique the math and statistics in media stories. They keep journalists on their toes (and make me feel better about being math-challenged).
I have two for you to consider this week.
WSJ.com’s The Numbers Guy
WSJ.com, the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, continues to garner paid subscribers (first quarter 2005: 730,857; same quarter last year: 695,224). But the site does offer a certain number of articles and columns without charge, in an effort to showcase its content and entice new subscribers. You can find each day’s free stuff at wsj.com/free. One of the free gems is “The Numbers Guy,” a column by Carl Bialik, a former staffer (who also co-writes “The Daily Fix,” an excellent roundup of sports news), available at wsj.com/numbersguy.
In his columns, Bialik looks at how “numbers are used, and abused, in the news, business and politics.” In describing the column, he says on the site: “Some numbers are flat-out wrong, misleading or biased. Others are valid and useful, helping us to make informed decisions.” He does a great job of taking one statistic that shows up on, say, cable news, and tearing it apart. He often traces the path of misleading numbers and, in the process, offers lessons all journalists can use. Unlike some blogs that attempt to debunk media items, Bialik’s approach is calm, lucid and backed up by — gasp! — facts.
Stats.org
You can’t accuse this site of not being ambitious. Here is its description: “STATS monitors the media to expose the abuse of science and statistics before people are misled and public policy is distorted. Since 1994, STATS has sought to hold U.S. journalists to the highest standards of reporting accuracy, while providing them with concrete assistance to help them better understand the complexities and limitations of scientific and statistical material.”
It’s a nonprofit, non-partisan organization affiliated with the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University (full disclosure: the site’s editor, Trevor Butterworth, is a former student of mine). It regularly looks at how the press gets numbers wrong, occasionally creating public panic. A good example of how effective a job Stats.org does is this examination of the recent story that certain antibacterial soaps produce chloroform. Butterworth concludes his piece this way: “This is a well-established trend when it comes to publicizing academic studies: hook the press in with a catchy synopsis or headline, and then leave it to the reporters to find out that things aren’t quite so clear cut in the study itself. Except that they don’t.”
YOUR TURN: Got a site you like? E-mail me at poynter@sree.net.
SAJA CONVENTION: More than 50 workshops and panels at this year’s gathering of 1,000+ journalists from around the world -– June 16-19 in NYC. You don’t have to be South Asian to attend!
