{"id":1194,"date":"2018-09-25T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/?page_id=1194"},"modified":"2023-01-19T01:50:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T01:50:33","slug":"news-numbers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/news-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"News &#038; numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Journalists need to be able to explain complex numbers to their audiences, for example, a percentage rise in taxes proposed at city hall, or a margin of error in a polling sample.<\/p>\n<p>The basic tool is usually Microsoft Excel or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.openoffice.org\/download\/index.html\">Open Office<\/a> spreadsheets.<\/p>\n<p>Each square is a cell, and each one has a special name based on its coordinates (Numbers from top to bottom, Alphabet from left to right).<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are three basic things<\/strong> you can do with a single cell in a spreadsheet:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can type in a label.<\/li>\n<li>You enter a number<\/li>\n<li>You can enter an equation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>With a list of numbers, you can\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Add, subtract, multiply, divide, and average, and lots more, but this is good for now.\n<ol>\n<li>Always start with the equal sign (= ) then use the cell coordinates.\u00a0 So Cell A1 plus A2 is:\u00a0 \u00a0=A1+A2.<\/li>\n<li>Use parenthesis to indicate order of operations. So\u00a0 \u00a0=A1+(A2*3)<\/li>\n<li>Use a colon to show the range of numbers you want to include:\u00a0 \u00a0=AVERAGE(A1:A22)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>Sort alphabetically or by number size (smallest to largest, or largest to smallest)\n<ol>\n<li>The &#8220;sort&#8221; command is on the top line<\/li>\n<li>Highlight the area you want sorted and be sure you sort all columns not just one<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Try these operations on the Virginia APA list of law enforcement expenditures by municipality <a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/APA.2019.LawEnforcement.xlsx\">APA.2019.LawEnforcement<\/a>\u00a0 (Excel file). This is simplified from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apa.state.va.us\/APA_Reports\/LG_ComparativeReports.aspx\">Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts comparative reports\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/office\/create-a-chart-from-start-to-finish-0baf399e-dd61-4e18-8a73-b3fd5d5680c2\"><b>\u00a0Making charts in Excel\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Change over time \/ Line chart: Create two or more data rows of data, and also a row of categories (years, months,\u00a0 etc)<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Percentage of a whole \/ Pie chart:\u00a0 Create one line of data<br \/>\nThen &#8230;<\/li>\n<li>For both of these, on the main menu, go from &#8220;Home&#8221; to &#8220;Insert&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Highlight the data cells<\/li>\n<li>Click on &#8220;Recommended Charts&#8221; and select one<\/li>\n<li>Copy the chart and open a new file in Gimp or Photoshop<\/li>\n<li>Save it as a png, jpg or gif for web display\n<ul>\n<li>Or Save as a tiff for printing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #444444;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/home\/math-for-journalists\/\">Math for journalists<\/a>: <\/span><span style=\"color: #444444;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Calculating percentages\n<ul>\n<li>New minus old, divide by old, multiply x 100\u00a0 = %\u00a0 change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Know the difference between mean, median and mode; which is the best measure of &#8220;average&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/politics-and-government\/polling-fundamentals-journalists\/\"><strong>Reporting on polls\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Understand sampling strategies, margins of error, etc.\u00a0 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/topic\/methodological-research\/survey-methods\/\">Pew Research<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/journalistsresource.org\/media\/standard-deviation-data-journalists\/\">Standard deviation<\/a> (Journalists Resource)<\/li>\n<li>What to know <a href=\"https:\/\/www-archive.aapor.org\/Education-Resources\/Election-Polling-Resources\/Poll-Aggregators.aspx\">about aggregators\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Poll Aggregators:\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/projects.fivethirtyeight.com\/polls\/\">Five Thirty Eight<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/\">Real Clear Politics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journalists need to be able to explain complex numbers to their audiences, for example, a percentage rise in taxes proposed at city hall, or a margin of error in a polling sample. The basic tool is usually Microsoft Excel or &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/news-numbers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1194\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/journalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}