Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Inside climateball: Why reporters should learn statistics
I have long thought that if I ran a serious newspaper I would require my reporters to take a course in statistics. It is hard to imagine a specific bit of knowledge that would more dramatically improve the quality of mainstream journalism. It would then also be more likely that my reporters would study this riveting blog post (no math required), which, if accurate, is a shocking deconstruction of the academic dishonesty that pervades climate science.
CWCID: Anthony Watts.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Aug 14, 04:03:00 AM:
I had always assumed journalists were intentionally ignorant of things mathematical.
By , at
Thu Aug 14, 07:02:00 AM:
Ditto. I get the impression that most journalists have the idea that they learned all the math and science they need to know by 8th grade.
Nonetheless,many of those who end up in science journalism DO know something about the subject.
By , at
Thu Aug 14, 10:17:00 AM:
At least a semester of statistics should be part of every college degree. I remember my high school statistics teacher saying that any poll that did not publish all of the questions they asked was meaningless.
I agree with Randian, journalists do not want to know math.
By , at
Thu Aug 14, 04:44:00 PM:
Actually, all they need is a 1 week course based on How to Lie With Statistics, Sorry, Wrong Number, or, my favorite title, How to Tell Liars From Statisticians.
By , at
Thu Aug 14, 06:00:00 PM:
I agree with the mandatory college course in statistics for humanities students. I had to take six hours of garbage humanities classes to get my engineering degree, its only fair that they take some math before graduation.
By 
Assistant Village Idiot, at
Thu Aug 14, 10:11:00 PM:
Anonymous - more than fair, actually...
How To Lie With Statistics is an easy read. Heck, if you just teach them to check where the graph is cut off on the bottom they can sift through 30% of the crap right there.
