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Twist and turns- reflection IANS ch 5 & 6

From reading IANS, I can know say I will never look at statistics the same way again. In Madelyn Gillespie’s blog I want a glass of milk, but do I want it 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? She discusses how all statistics and numbers can be viewed different ways. I hadn’t ever really thought to look at the other side of a number, but by not doing so, I’m not ever getting the full truth. Madelyn gives several examples such as the percentage of young woman with AIDS, and how the number was portrayed as something negative. Well of course AIDS is nothing to be happy about, but what was failed to be reported was that the percentage had actually gone down; just not as down as the men’s percentage. Also the questions asked in these surveys and polls, is a big determinant in the response. Because anyone can phrase a question a certain way, to get the response they want, which is what it seems is being done. So it’s up to us, the journalist and the readers, to look beyond the numbers and ask questions.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on November 1, 2007 9:59 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Through the looking glass.

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