The Uses of Science Statistics in the News Media and on Daily Life

Abstract

Statistical information as part of news reports of science is intended to legitimate the accounts of evidence based on peer-reviewed data. Indeed, the persuasive power of numbers can be seen in newsrooms as it supports and validates arguments (Boyle, 2000; Eberstadt, 1995; Goldacre, Bad Science, 2009; Hacking, 1965; Livingston & Voakes, 2005; Lugo-Ocando & Brandão, 2015). Nonetheless, these mathematical abstractions can also be used as a means to misinform the public (Huff, 1954; Moore, 1997). This chapter, thus, seeks both to understand how journalists use scientific statistics as a means to communicate current scientific research as well as how the public decodes this information. It proposes to address the construction of scientific statistics by journalists and its deconstruction by the public at large through a cross-Atlantic comparison of the uses of mathematics in science news and on daily life.