Data Journalism, Impartiality And Statistical Claims
Data Journalism, Impartiality And Statistical Claims
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数据新闻、公正性和统计声明
DOI：
10.1080/17512786.2016.1256789
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
R. Callaghan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Stephen Cushion;Justin Lewis;R. Callaghan
数据的使用通常被视为新闻业潜在的强大民主力量，促进信息源的流动并丰富公共领域的辩论。我们利用 BBC Trust 委托进行的有史以来最大规模的新闻报道统计参考研究 (N = 4285) 来探讨统计数据如何影响英国电视、广播和在线媒体的报道 (N = 6916)，从而探讨数据与新闻之间关系的一个关键特征。总的来说，我们的研究为使用数据启发民主辩论提供了一个警示。虽然我们发现新闻报道中经常引用统计数据，但它们在讲故事中的作用往往是模糊的、不完整的和不精确的。政界和商界精英是引用和解释统计数据的主要参与者，但他们的许多主张既没有受到记者的质疑也没有进一步盘问，统计数据往往由争论的对立双方在没有独立分析的情况下进行交易。为了加强对统计数据的独立审查，我们认为新闻采集和新闻解释需要发生根本性转变，使记者能够利用更广泛的统计来源，并根据统计证据的权重采取更批判性的判断。
The use of data is often viewed as a potentially powerful democratic force in journalism, promoting the flow of information sources and enriching debates in the public sphere. We explore a key feature of the relationship between data and journalism, drawing upon the largest ever study of statistical references in news reporting (N = 4285) commissioned by the BBC Trust to examine how statistics inform coverage in a wide range of UK television, radio and online media (N = 6916). Overall, our study provides a cautionary tale about the use of data to enlighten democratic debate. While we found that statistics were often referenced in news coverage, their role in storytelling was often vague, patchy and imprecise. Political and business elites were the main actors referencing statistics and interpreting them, but many of their claims were neither questioned nor interrogated further by journalists, with statistics often traded by opposing sides of an argument without independent analysis. In order to enhance the independent scrutiny of statistics, we argue a radical shift in newsgathering and journalistic interpretation is needed, which allows reporters to draw on a wider range of statistical sources and to adopt more critical judgements based on the weight of statistical evidence.