[FRIAM] 25 numbers every journalist should know

[Robert Holmes]

How does any of that help me get a better photo of Britney's cellulite or
write the accompanying story?

Robert

On 8/7/06, Tom Johnson <tom at jtjohnson.com> wrote:
>
> Friends:
>
> My apologies for the cross-posts, but....
>
> For an upcoming presentation, I'm putting together a list of the 25 basic
> statistics every journalist should know, at least withing a range of plus or
> minus 5 percent.  This list would, ideally, be a template that could be
> given to journos in any country so that he/she would always be ready to put
> many stories in context.  Below is a rough beginning.  I wonder if you might
> have some data points of a similar vein that you find useful?
>
> THE 25 NUMBERS EVERY JOURNALIST SHOULD KNOW
> *) The world's population
> *) Your nation's population and as a percent of the world
> *) Your state/province/district population and as a percent of your nation
> *) Your city's pop. and as a percent of your state/province/district
> *) The percent of change for all of the above in the past 10 years
> *) The current budget of your nation/state/province/district/city
> government
> *) The sub-sections of the above budgets for health, education, public
> safety, infrastructure and their relative percentages
> *) The world's live birth rates and same for your
> nation/state/province/district/city
> *) Average life expectancy for males and females in your
> nation/state/province/district/city
> *) Average family size for your nation/state/province/district/city
> *) Per capita and per family annual income for your
> nation/state/province/district/city
> *) Average years of education for males and females in the world and your
> nation/state/province/district/city
>
> Many thanks.  I'll post the roundup of the suggestions.
>
> -Tom Johnson
> --
> ==========================================
> J. T. Johnson
> Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
> www.analyticjournalism.com
> 505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
> http://www.jtjohnson.com               tom at jtjohnson.com
>
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> To change something, build a new model that makes the
> existing model obsolete."
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