Making Sense of Data in the Media
University of Sheffield, Todd Hartman
5 mins
3 key insights
Visual, audio & text
Where does the responsibility lie when it comes to telling the truth in the media? This course by the University of Sheffield unravels the complexities of the veracity spectrum using an expert lens.


Making Sense of Data in the Media

Making Sense of Data in the Media
by University of Sheffield
Overview
Media literacy is healthy for any given society, especially in the age of the internet. How can we be sure that the information we consume online is providing an accurate account of a given story?
This University of Sheffield course offered through FutureLearn draws on expert statisticians to showcase the power of accurate or inaccurate statistics. Mark Taylor, Aneta Piekut, and Andrew Bell teach Quantitative Methods and Quantitative Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield's Methods Institute. Joined by Todd Hartman of the Royal Statistical Society, Making Sense of Data in the Media's instructors explain how statistics are gathered and which numbers we can trust.
This course is designed for anyone looking to sharpen their perspective of the news media and the role of data collection in shaping public perception.
Favorite quote

Often we want to make sense of the world, so we use whatever data is readily available… This can provide important insights where we previously had little information, yet it can also increase the chance of finding spurious or false relationships.
- Todd Hartman

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