Balancing between "statistical panic" and "statistical boredom": News, numbers and narratives in the risk society
Authors: Lawson, B. and Nguyen, A.
Editors: Allan, S.
Publisher: Routledge
Place of Publication: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=doCUEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT262&dq=%22News,+Numbers+and+Public+Opinion+in+a+Data-Driven+World%22&ots=zdfhmOyjWs&sig=Zh8YQmQhH1R9eBK-Za1zdbgs5eA#v=onepage&q=%22News%2C%20Numbers%20and%20Public%20Opinion%20in%20a%20Data-Driven%20World%22&f=false
Abstract:How can journalists use statistics to engage the public both cognitively and affectively with the world that they purportedly represent? Can they ever tell the data story without losing the human elements they are accustomed to prioritising? In what way can numerical news narratives help stimulate both public reasoning and public emotion without losing the scientific rigour of data? Answers to these questions would vary from one context to another and depends on the nature of the data at stake. This chapter uses Covid-19 risk data as a case in point to argue that a balance of reasoning and feelings might be achieved through a careful marriage of the numerical and the personal in news storytelling. To demonstrate the affordances and drawbacks of this approach, we outline examples from the pandemic that focus on three types of risk: when the risk is large, when the risk is low and when the risk is elusive. Each of these is dissected using three concepts – zooming (in and out), painting and anchoring (Lawson, 2020) – in relation the concepts of “statistical panic” and “statistical boredom” espoused by Woodward (2009). Throughout, we will identify when journalists might effectively combine the quantitative and the qualitative.
Source: Manual
