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More or Less: Behind the Stats

Improving the numbers in the news

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.63.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How can journalists improve their use of statistics in their reporting of the world around us? It’s a question US academics John Bailer and Rosemary Pennington tackle in their new book Statistics Behind the Headlines. They join Tim Harford to talk about how journalism can be improved by asking the right questions about numbers and using them in the wider context of a story. Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Simon Watts Production Coordinator: Jacqui Johnson Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot (Image: Electronic and paper media: scanrail/Getty)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for downloading the Morales podcast.

0:09.3

We are weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Halford.

0:14.6

Here at Morales we know how important it is to put numbers in their true context and

0:19.1

do our bit to highlight when the use of statistics is anything from a bit misleading to totally

0:24.8

off the wall.

0:26.4

In particular, as you may have noticed, we quite like reminding our dear fellow journalists

0:31.2

that they perhaps need to be a bit more careful with numbers than they often are.

0:35.7

And we're not the only ones with a mission to help journalists improve how they report

0:39.7

and use numbers in the news.

0:42.1

Here are two trailblazers from Miami University in Ohio in the United States, spreading the

0:47.6

word via podcast and now a new book.

0:51.0

I'm John Baylor, I'm a professor emeritus of statistics and I'm co-author of the book

0:57.3

Statistics Behind the Headlines, which also was a spin-off of long running podcasts

1:03.0

that we've done, stats and stories.

1:05.0

I'm Rosemary Pennington, I'm a journalism professor at Miami University and I co-wrote

1:09.3

statistics behind the headlines with John.

1:12.0

I'm absolutely delighted to have you both on Morales.

1:15.7

The book, like the podcast, addresses this question of journalism and how journalists

1:21.1

deal with statistics.

1:23.2

So I'm curious, maybe I should get John's view and then ask Rosemary to defend the

1:27.8

noble professional journalism.

1:29.5

No, no.

...

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