Reporting Effectively with Numbers

When it comes to using data in journalism, my two greatest concerns are keeping the reader interested and sounding credible in my reporting.

Unless the numbers or statistics are shocking or irregular in some way, most people are not gripped. In journalism, the key is to keep your reader engaged. I fear that if I use big numbers in a story, or numbers that are too specific, I’ll lose my reader’s interest. In class, we discussed a few helpful tactics for presenting statistical data in more captivating ways than simply stating numbers. These tactics include rounding off numbers and including immediately understandable phrases, making comparisons to something familiar to the readers in order to put numbers into relatable perspective, spreading numbers throughout the story, and using graphics.

My second concern is not only finding credible sources, but also sounding credible through my reporting. One way to remain credible through reporting is to very clearly attribute where the information came from. While this is important, you also don’t want to be so specific and detailed in your description of the data source that you disengage your reader. The key is to give just enough information that your reader can check the source if they so desire. With finding credible sources for data, “.gov” sites are common raw and reliable data sources.

My favorite news website is The Guardian. When I want to read up on world affairs, it is my go-to source. Often, when appropriate, they incorporate data graphics into their stories. They also use shocking figures to grab their readers’ attention. I frequently click on a story because a large or shocking statistic in a headline has caught my attention. In this particular story about anxiety and depression, the journalist grabbed readers' attention with a shocking statistic, “50 Million Years of Work Could be Lost to Anxiety and Depression.”

Additionally, this story used graphic elements to represent statistical evidence relevant to the topic. By providing visual references, the numbers were easier to understand and compare.