Well this is marginally better than the reporting we usually see on anything that involves numbers, in that they mention that there is an ongoing declining trend and they give just enough context that we can be pretty sure this year’s number is fully consistent with that trend. Of course they do not actually tell us the variance, they do still pretend that one year’s number is more significant than it is in reality (e.g. “second year in a row with a decline”) and we have no idea how cherry-picked that 2014 date for comparison might or might not be. But still, not bad Europe. A time series chart would’ve been a very easy way to improve it.
If you actually cared enough to actually read the article, you would have found the link to the longer version. and also some datasets in it. But it is obvious that you just want to complain. Otherwise you would have clicked those links and actually found the data you claim to be looking for.
Yes, I saw the links to more data. I cared precisely enough to read the article, and not enough to follow those links to discover the real story on my own. I sometimes take a moment to point out the obvious flaws in pieces such as this one due to a vain hope that someone responsible for reporting on things involving numbers will one day see such complaints and be inspired to do better.
Some people do indeed write on paper in a journal and keep it under the bed. Some scrawl their words in pencil on the bathroom walls. Some write letters to their members of parliament. Some type stuff into the handy text box on Lemmy. To each their own, I guess.
I sometimes take a moment to point out the obvious flaws in pieces such as this one due to a vain hope that someone responsible for reporting on things involving numbers will one day see such complaints and be inspired to do better.
If you are going to complain about it, why not send the complaint to the people who are writing this stuff? You already wrote the comment, copy paste that to the feedback box. That way theres a 1% chance that someone reads it and learns from it. Just writing on Lemmy theres a 0.00001% chance for that.
But like you said, to each their own, I guess. If screaming to the void makes you feel better, go for it.
Screaming, huh? It seems an odd interpretation. To me it still looks only like a casual observation, of the kind one might be expected to make in a discussion thread about a news article on the Internet. It did not seem out of place or even all that remarkable. I did not feel moved to attempt the kind of more in-depth consideration and analysis that would justify the effort of directing a message specifically to the official statistics agency of Europe about it.
Anyway, to the extent that the message about being careful in interpreting statistics is important and needs to be heard, readers need to hear it as much as reporters.
Obviously I didn’t mean literally screaming, you just said that you hoped that someone responsible would notice, I only commented that maybe that same effort would be better directed straight into the eyeballs of the people who are doing this.
You are of course free to write your criticism anywhere and in any way you choose.
Well this is marginally better than the reporting we usually see on anything that involves numbers, in that they mention that there is an ongoing declining trend and they give just enough context that we can be pretty sure this year’s number is fully consistent with that trend. Of course they do not actually tell us the variance, they do still pretend that one year’s number is more significant than it is in reality (e.g. “second year in a row with a decline”) and we have no idea how cherry-picked that 2014 date for comparison might or might not be. But still, not bad Europe. A time series chart would’ve been a very easy way to improve it.
If you actually cared enough to actually read the article, you would have found the link to the longer version. and also some datasets in it. But it is obvious that you just want to complain. Otherwise you would have clicked those links and actually found the data you claim to be looking for.
Yes, I saw the links to more data. I cared precisely enough to read the article, and not enough to follow those links to discover the real story on my own. I sometimes take a moment to point out the obvious flaws in pieces such as this one due to a vain hope that someone responsible for reporting on things involving numbers will one day see such complaints and be inspired to do better.
Whining on Lemmy is about as effective as writing your complaints on a piece of paper and storing them under your bed.
Have you considered sending feedback either to the reporter or the paper that the reporter works for?
Some people do indeed write on paper in a journal and keep it under the bed. Some scrawl their words in pencil on the bathroom walls. Some write letters to their members of parliament. Some type stuff into the handy text box on Lemmy. To each their own, I guess.
I was referring to this:
If you are going to complain about it, why not send the complaint to the people who are writing this stuff? You already wrote the comment, copy paste that to the feedback box. That way theres a 1% chance that someone reads it and learns from it. Just writing on Lemmy theres a 0.00001% chance for that.
But like you said, to each their own, I guess. If screaming to the void makes you feel better, go for it.
Screaming, huh? It seems an odd interpretation. To me it still looks only like a casual observation, of the kind one might be expected to make in a discussion thread about a news article on the Internet. It did not seem out of place or even all that remarkable. I did not feel moved to attempt the kind of more in-depth consideration and analysis that would justify the effort of directing a message specifically to the official statistics agency of Europe about it.
Anyway, to the extent that the message about being careful in interpreting statistics is important and needs to be heard, readers need to hear it as much as reporters.
Obviously I didn’t mean literally screaming, you just said that you hoped that someone responsible would notice, I only commented that maybe that same effort would be better directed straight into the eyeballs of the people who are doing this.
You are of course free to write your criticism anywhere and in any way you choose.