• The University of Sheffield

Making Sense of Data in the Media

Discover how to read and understand data in the media, and how to spot fake news based on misleading statistics.

15,011 enrolled on this course

Making Sense of Data in the Media

15,011 enrolled on this course

  • 3 weeks

  • 3 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Intermediate level

Find out more about how to join this course

Improve your data literacy and learn how to spot misleading statistics

“We are bombarded with media statistics every day, but how much of this data is reliable?

On this course, you’ll learn how to read and evaluate data in the media and how to stay alert to misleading statistics and fake news.

You’ll find out how data is created, and how survey formats can affect outcomes.

You’ll also learn the basic principles of data analysis, such as correlation and causation and margins of sampling error.

Ultimately, assessing data and looking for intentionally or unintentionally misleading statistics will help you become a better-informed citizen.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 9 seconds Think of a number.

Skip to 0 minutes and 13 seconds Think of a bigger number. This number doesn’t mean much right now. But if we put it in a newspaper, or on a report, or on the television, or on a chart, it becomes a very important number. This number could tell us if something is too high, too low, too costly or too time consuming. It can tell us if we’re doing too much or not enough, if we’re a success or a failure, if we’re headed for trouble or if the forecast is bright. This number can be a statistic, or a decimal point. It can be a spiraling cost or a massive saving.

Skip to 0 minutes and 46 seconds It can tell us who to vote for, how much we should be paid, or what direction our lives are going in.

Skip to 0 minutes and 55 seconds Increasingly, we are bombarded with all sorts of data

Skip to 0 minutes and 58 seconds about how society is changing: opinion poll trends, migration data, economic results, government debt levels and MPs’ expenses claims. Often the data is presented to boost a sometimes contentious claim. So the ability to read this information with confidence is an increasingly important skill. In this free course from The University of Sheffield, three academics from The Sheffield Methods Institute will ask two simple questions - where do these numbers come from and can they be trusted? We’ll look at surveys, polls and other means of data collection, and we’ll look at the legitimacy of statistics. When is it okay to believe what you read and when is it not?

Skip to 1 minute and 41 seconds We’ll examine how numbers can be deliberately or accidentally misleading, how they can be sculpted to tell one story or interpreted to hide another. And ultimately, how can you tell who’s right? By the end of the course, you will have improved your data literacy skills, developed an understanding of how social statistics are created and used, and become a more critical consumer and user of social and economic data. This course would be ideal for anybody looking to study in the social sciences, anyone who feels bamboozled by the presentation of numbers around them, or anyone who is simply struggling to make sense of data in the media.

What topics will you cover?

  • Recognising the ‘size’ of numbers that are reported in the media.
  • How change and risk are reported.
  • How social statistics are created, paying particular attention to survey data.
  • What we can learn from census categories.
  • The different ways that surveys can be conducted and the impact that different formats can have on the results.
  • How to draw a representative sample from a population.
  • Sources of measurement error in surveys.
  • Measuring sensitive or difficult subjects.
  • Checking whether data is trustworthy by reviewing the methodology.
  • How to calculate the Margin of Sampling Error (MoSE).
  • The difference between correlation and causation.
  • Where to find existing sources of data.
  • How to develop a quantitative research project.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Become a critical consumer of data in the media.
  • Explain how social statistics are created.
  • Evaluate data to make informed decisions about which results to trust.
  • Design a quantitative research project.

Who is the course for?

This course is suitable for anyone looking to improve their data literacy.

The course will also be useful to those studying or considering studying data-focused social science subjects.

What do people say about this course?

This has been an excellent course.

"This has been an excellent course and the involvement of educators in the discussions has been outstanding."

Who will you learn with?

I'm a senior lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the Sheffield Methods Institute in the University of Sheffield.

I am a sociologist working as a Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods at the Sheffield Methods Institute, the University of Sheffield, UK. I teach on survey design and data collection techniques.

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science; Director of the Sheffield Q-Step Centre; Statistical Ambassador for the Royal Statistical Society. Research interests in political psychology.

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Social Sciences at Sheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield. Find out more at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smi/about-us/andrewbell or tweet @andrewjdbell

Who developed the course?

The University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is one of the world’s top 100 universities with a reputation for teaching and research excellence.

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Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$109/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 9 Apr 2024

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