Chapter one, The Language of Numbers, talks about the importance of journalists committing themselves to be accurate in their reporting when it comes to numbers. For instance, journalists can’t just be good at weeding out bad grammar and punctuation – they have to look for math errors as well. You can never assume that the person who initially prepared the document you are working on has superior math skills; you also can’t assume the numbers weren’t manipulated to strengthen an argument. “Numerical illiteracy is not acceptable in the newsroom, or even in society,” Wichkam says. “It is unattractive, slovenly and an unacceptable excuse for poor writing, weak reporting and faulty editing.” Other tips from chapter one include knowing when to use exact figures as opposed to rounding off (the number dead in an accident versus the amount of salt poured on the interstate last year). Journalists should spell out fractions less than one, use the word and not the figure if a sentence begins with a number and the number of figures used in each paragraph should be limited to two or three, while aiming to include only one number in the lead.
Chapter two talks about four common usages of percentages: percentage increase, percentage decrease, percentage of the whole and percentage points. To calculate the percentage of a whole, you divide the number that represents the subgroup by the number that represents the whole group. Percentages can also be used to calculate sports stats, such as batting averages. To calculate interest, you take the principal times the rate (as a decimal) and multiply this number by the amount of time (in years). The chapter then goes into loans, compounding and interest. It then explains how borrowers go about paying back their loans according to the interest rate and the term of the loan.
Chapter three is all about statistics. The most common types of statistics we see in print are often those related to crime and the average cost of food. Journalists are also often required to evaluate surveys and studies, which makes it essential that they understand how the numbers were used in reports like this. Statistics are very often manipulated in order to “serve someone’s goal,” so it’s important to stay alert when numbers look like they are off. Mean, median and mode are important to understand when it comes to statistics. The mean is essentially the average, or the sum of all figures combined with the total number. The median is the middle number when a grouping of numbers is lined up. The mode is the number that appears the most frequently in a distribution. The final part of the chapter explains percentiles and probability. Percentiles represent the percentage of scores that fall at or below the designated score. For instance, someone who takes a test and scores in the 60th percentile means he performed better than 60 percent of those who took the test. Probability is essentially a ratio that comes from calculating the odds of a certain outcome.
Chapter four is about federal statistics. The public always has the ability to look for information, provided by the federal government, on figures related to inflation, unemployment and many other national figures. It is crucial that reporters not only know how to access these numbers, but how to use them as well. Unemployment statistics are updated every month by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, which provides the current standings on the national unemployment situation. The unemployment rate can be calculated by dividing the unemployed by the labor force and multiplying that figure by 100. Next, the chapter mentions inflation, which is an issue commonly faced by journalists. The monthly inflation rate can be calculated by subtracting the CPI of the previous month from the current CPI, dividing by the prior month CPI and multiplying that figure by 100. Finally, gross domestic product is discussed. GDP is the value of goods and services produced by a nation’s economy. It can be calculated by adding the consumer spending on goods and services, investment spending, government spending and net exports.
Examples:
Roman numerals
D+C+X+L=
500+100+10+50 = 660
Percentage increase
Jane Doe’s salary increased this year from $65,000 to $75,000. What percentage increase was Jane’s raise?
Percentage inc./dec = (new figure – old figure) / old figure
75,000-65,000= 10,000
10,000/65,000= .154 = 15.4%
Sports Stats
Total number of at-bats – walks, sacrifices and number of times batter was hit by a pitch. Divide number of hits batter made by the whole for the batting average.
37 hits/100 at-bats= .370 batting average
Median
The median is the midpoint in a grouping of numbers.
10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 35,000, 40,000 – in this case, the median would be 25,000, because it is the middle number.
rachel vargyai 