Brandon Lawson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Brandon Lawson

Joint Report by Bournemouth University, Royal Statistical Society and Association of British Science Writers, 2021

Covid-19 has brought data and statistics to the centre of daily life like never before: everythin... more Covid-19 has brought data and statistics to the centre of daily life like never before: everything we do in response to the virus at individual, organisational and societal levels depends literally on what the numbers tell us. In March 2020, as the exponential virus loomed large into an existential threat, an influx of numbers that would normally stay within the domain of specialist expertise suddenly occupied the physical and cultural space of the lockdown family. “Scary” concepts – R-naught, infection rate, transmission rate, death rate, excess deaths, false positive, false negative, relative risk, absolute risk, random sampling, statistical modelling and so on – abounded everywhere, from the TV and computer screens to husband-wife or even parent-child musings.

With that came a statistical chaos that continues, albeit to a lesser extent, today. Associated with such numbers is an unprecedented level of complexity and uncertainty due to the novelty of the virus. But as they become so crucial, Covid-19 data have been subject to a rather fierce battle between different frames and narratives, in which scientists dispute with each other as well as compete – not always successfully – with religion, culture and, most importantly, politics. Amidst much public confusion, anxiety and fear, numerical misinformation and disinformation seem to be everywhere on social media.

What does all this mean to journalism, a profession that is rarely commended for their ability to engage and deal with numbers? What are the major challenges? How have journalists performed in in questioning, scrutinising and communicating Covid-19 data, including debunking statistical “lies and damn lies”? What methods, techniques and platforms do they use to obtain, unpack, portray and deliver Covid-19 data and statistics to help people make sense of the pandemic? To what extent can their work change hearts or alter minds? What can the media learn from the first year of news reporting of the virus?

On 4 December, 2020, twenty-four senior science, health and data journalists, scientists, statisticians and media scholars gathered for to reflect on the above at a one-day conference jointly organised by Bournemouth University, the Royal Statistical Society and the Association of British Science Writers. The event, called Coronavirus, Statistical Chaos and the News Symposium, was a platform for journalists and scholars to share ideas and exchange experience around the above questions. This report summarises key issues, challenges and lessons learnt from the first year of British news reporting of the pandemic.

Joint Report by Bournemouth University, Royal Statistical Society and Association of British Science Writers, 2021

Covid-19 has brought data and statistics to the centre of daily life like never before: everythin... more Covid-19 has brought data and statistics to the centre of daily life like never before: everything we do in response to the virus at individual, organisational and societal levels depends literally on what the numbers tell us. In March 2020, as the exponential virus loomed large into an existential threat, an influx of numbers that would normally stay within the domain of specialist expertise suddenly occupied the physical and cultural space of the lockdown family. “Scary” concepts – R-naught, infection rate, transmission rate, death rate, excess deaths, false positive, false negative, relative risk, absolute risk, random sampling, statistical modelling and so on – abounded everywhere, from the TV and computer screens to husband-wife or even parent-child musings.

With that came a statistical chaos that continues, albeit to a lesser extent, today. Associated with such numbers is an unprecedented level of complexity and uncertainty due to the novelty of the virus. But as they become so crucial, Covid-19 data have been subject to a rather fierce battle between different frames and narratives, in which scientists dispute with each other as well as compete – not always successfully – with religion, culture and, most importantly, politics. Amidst much public confusion, anxiety and fear, numerical misinformation and disinformation seem to be everywhere on social media.

What does all this mean to journalism, a profession that is rarely commended for their ability to engage and deal with numbers? What are the major challenges? How have journalists performed in in questioning, scrutinising and communicating Covid-19 data, including debunking statistical “lies and damn lies”? What methods, techniques and platforms do they use to obtain, unpack, portray and deliver Covid-19 data and statistics to help people make sense of the pandemic? To what extent can their work change hearts or alter minds? What can the media learn from the first year of news reporting of the virus?

On 4 December, 2020, twenty-four senior science, health and data journalists, scientists, statisticians and media scholars gathered for to reflect on the above at a one-day conference jointly organised by Bournemouth University, the Royal Statistical Society and the Association of British Science Writers. The event, called Coronavirus, Statistical Chaos and the News Symposium, was a platform for journalists and scholars to share ideas and exchange experience around the above questions. This report summarises key issues, challenges and lessons learnt from the first year of British news reporting of the pandemic.