Statistics in Journalism Practice and Higher Education

Abstract

Drawing from comparative experiences in the United Kingdom and the United States, this chapter examines the issues and challenges of trying to teach statistics to journalism students. In so doing, it discusses the epistemological reasons why should journalism studies as a field incorporate statistics while arguing in favour of a re-examination of the overall curricula in British universities. The chapter deals with issues of resource, competences and abilities of those called to teach statistics in this area as well as the limitations and constrains in terms of resources and teaching materials. The chapter finally calls for an integrated approach in which statistics is not taught as a silo but instead embedded into the wider syllabus.