LETTER: Press has lost the ability to analyse data
Journalists use terms without knowing what they mean
22 March 2022 - 17:09
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Anyone who cannot judge the relative importance of an article from their perspective and the headline (without it being made obvious through font size, etc), should probably not be reading newspapers.
Where the press has really lost the plot is in the lack of any ability to analyse data. There are many examples, but a prime one is the data presented during the Covid-19 outbreak: one had to dig really deeply to find any sort of comparison between death rates from Covid-19 and any other disease (tuberculosis, HIV/Aids or cancer, for example) to put the outbreak into perspective.
Terms such as “excess deaths” were routinely trotted out without any attempt to explain them. There was regular use of terms such as “huge increase” without any attempt to put these into a percentage. Very little investigation was done into co-morbidities, and especially during the Delta variant phrases such as “rapid rate of increase of infections” were regularly used, but it was a battle to get any sort of graphic information. Once seen, it was apparent that the Delta rate of increase was no faster than previous variants.
Coincidentally, in the same issue of Business Day there was an article entitled “Greens need to get over their nuclear allergy”. Exactly. Every time nuclear energy is mentioned in the energy mix there is an outcry. While I would certainly not mix nuclear energy and government — or state-owned enterprise implementation — nuclear is a sensible baseload alternative.
Would someone please explain to journalists the need for a baseload supply? No-one would logically expect them to be technical experts, but there are resources they can draw on. The public needs to be better informed.
Eric Carter Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Press has lost the ability to analyse data
Journalists use terms without knowing what they mean
Anton Harber’s column refers (“Press has lost the art of sorting the wheat from the chaff”, March 17). I agree with the headline, but for different reasons.
Anyone who cannot judge the relative importance of an article from their perspective and the headline (without it being made obvious through font size, etc), should probably not be reading newspapers.
Where the press has really lost the plot is in the lack of any ability to analyse data. There are many examples, but a prime one is the data presented during the Covid-19 outbreak: one had to dig really deeply to find any sort of comparison between death rates from Covid-19 and any other disease (tuberculosis, HIV/Aids or cancer, for example) to put the outbreak into perspective.
Terms such as “excess deaths” were routinely trotted out without any attempt to explain them. There was regular use of terms such as “huge increase” without any attempt to put these into a percentage. Very little investigation was done into co-morbidities, and especially during the Delta variant phrases such as “rapid rate of increase of infections” were regularly used, but it was a battle to get any sort of graphic information. Once seen, it was apparent that the Delta rate of increase was no faster than previous variants.
Coincidentally, in the same issue of Business Day there was an article entitled “Greens need to get over their nuclear allergy”. Exactly. Every time nuclear energy is mentioned in the energy mix there is an outcry. While I would certainly not mix nuclear energy and government — or state-owned enterprise implementation — nuclear is a sensible baseload alternative.
Would someone please explain to journalists the need for a baseload supply? No-one would logically expect them to be technical experts, but there are resources they can draw on. The public needs to be better informed.
Eric Carter
Via email
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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