Stats in the news

Stats in the News #2 – Who reads fake news?

April 15, 2017 By Nigel Marriott

Fake news has entered the political dictionary over the last year. Suddenly, politicians and commentators are worried that elections are being influenced by false stories being circulated that appear to be genuine. Social media platforms are under pressure to filter out such stories raising the old questions of censorship and “who guards the guards?” However, evidence on the extent and influence of fake news is thin on the ground.

A recent article from the BBC website “The rise of left wing, anti-Trump fake news” has provided some firmer evidence which I think makes a good case study for my evidence hierarchy or circle.

Stats in the News #1 – Science & Technology March 2017

March 25, 2017 By Nigel Marriott

Welcome to my first post where I put my Evidence Hierarchy or Circle into practice and show you what is behind the headline.

Today I am concentrating on science and technology related articles from the BBC website since that is accessible to nearly everyone. As always, I am critiquing the article more than the research since I have not read the research papers that motivated the article. The 3 articles are:

“Fruit shaped sensor can improve freshness“.
“Robots to affect up to 30% of jobs“
“Dinosaurs may have UK origin“