5 ms·
Neat examples. Still a dearth in statistical aptitude to cross before "data driven" journalism becomes more than nieche market or circus, but every step counts.
by usgroup 10y ago
Neat examples. Still a dearth in statistical aptitude to cross before "data driven" journalism becomes more than nieche market or circus, but every step counts.
- minimaxir 10y agoThat's a No True Scotsman way of looking at it. Data journalism is about making a justifiable, persuasive argument with evidence, and for some arguments you don't need p-values everywhere. Granted, some news sources tend to use data journalism as a linkbait strategy ("In One Chart!") to make arguments which are hard to impeach, which is a separate issue.
- usgroup 10y agoI didn't mean it in terms of p values. Just an ability to reason from data. Statistics is not statistical inference. What does the graph actually show? Is it confounded? How was the data collected? Everyone likes a bit of graph porn because it's associated to rigour. But clothing not maketh the man and all that.
- danso 10y agoData journalism is such a broad umbrella that it's hard to agree how mainstream or niche it is. I think David Leonhardt (former editor of the NYT's Upshot) had it absolutely right [0] when he said "data journalism" is as dumb and meaningless a phrase as "word journalism". Though perhaps the fact that journalists are OK with calling it "data journalism" as a means to differentiate it from whatever normal journalism is, is a testament to how niche the concept of using data is in journalism. [0] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/upshot/death-to-data-journalism.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/upshot/death-to-data-journ...