Generally, we think of journals and articles as reliable, however even otherwise reliable data can be presented in skewed ways. When taking in information, consider:
This article linked the original scientific article from the American Chemistry Society, but the headline and text is misleading. For a scientific study mentioned in an article, do research to find the original study or data.
This video explains some of the problems inherent in reporting about scientific research and points out some concepts that news consumers should be aware of when reading about the findings
Source: TED-Ed, David H. Schwartz
Length: 4:26 minutes
Data for Journalists by
This straightforward and effective how-to guide provides the basics for any reporter or journalism student beginning to use data for news stories. It has step-by-step instructions on how to do basic data analysis in journalism while addressing why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the 21st century. In an ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism or computer-assisted reporting, Houston emphasizes that journalists are accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share. With a refreshed design, this updated new edition includes expanded coverage on social media, scraping data from the web, and text-mining, and provides journalists with the tips and tools they need for working with data.
This seems counterintuitive that gun deaths go down after a "Stand Your Ground" law was passed in Florida. So we went directly to the data to verify the graph.
The data disproves the graph. Notice that the first graph is upside down. The Y axis always has zero at the bottom. If you look at the data and the corrected graph, you can see that gun deaths increased dramatically after the law was passed.
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Get research assistance from the MU Libraries' staff via email, phone, or in person at the library. There's also a searchable list of frequently asked questions. You can chat with a librarian 24 hours a day (M-F) and Saturday and Sundays starting at 10 a.m. You can contact your subject librarian to ask questions or to set up an appointment to meet one-on-one.
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