When
the August U.S. unemployment numbers were released, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed "The economy creates another
1.4 million jobs, defying the pessimists."
It's not until the second paragraph of the article that they mention that the unemployment rate in August was 8.4%, only down by 1.8% versus July. And that 238,000 of those new jobs were temporary census workers. (WSJ, 2020)
With a bit more searching online you can find out that between 1948 and 2020 the average unemployment rate was 5.76%. And that in February 2020 it was 3.5%. (BLS, 2020)
Now that I have read these details from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, I am feeling a bit more pessimistic. How about you?
Have you ever encountered a misleading headline or statistic? Do you read the entire article or just the headline? If something seems off do you research it further, or just move on? Can you think of instance when knowing the context of data has changed your opinion?
What about your news sources? Who do you trust? How do you stay well informed?
(2020, September 4) The Jobs of August. wsj.com. Retrieved September 7, 2020, fromhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-jobs-of-august-11599260186
(2020, March 11) 19.2 percent of the unemployed had been jobless for 27 weeks or more in February 2020. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved September 7, 2020, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/19-point-2-percent-of-the-unemployed-had-been-jobless-for-27-weeks-or-more-in-february-2020.htm#:~:text=In%20February%202020%2C%20the%20unemployment,19.2%20percent%20in%20February%202020.
7 comments:
I agree with your opinion. A lot of people, like myself, believe in numbers. Whatever article comes with a number, I tend to believe what is stated in it than article without numbers or statistics. However, these statics can be used to mislead the readers. Sometimes, it has no correlation with the subject in the article or lack of explanations of the background such as how, why and who conducted the survey. I think it is our responsibility as a reader to do fact-checking before spread the article or post on social media. Masa Suzuki
Misleading interpretations of statistics are rampant in headlines to stir up emotion, sway consumer sentiment and sell papers. Or in the modern version, they can simply be "Click Bait" for the press, or one-liner headlines for advertising or special interest. In our current world of information overload where millions of online publishers post their bias perspectives, it is hard for consumers to have enough time to filter content for accuracy. Most people just read headlines or fall victim to confirmation bias in the echo chambers their Facebook or Google algorithm has delivered to them. It should be the responsibility of the media and governing bodies to convey accurate interpretations of statistics, considering both perspectives. I love infographics and I think there should be more unbiased infographics of statistics delivered to the public to literally "paint" an accurate picture with data that speaks louder than a singular bias statistic. T e r e s a
I am also disappointed about the fact that The Wall Street Journal does not include the data comparison to the similar time periods in the past, as well as the specific data descriptions regarding the newest U.S. unemployment numbers. The way that they present the data is indeed misleading. It creates an optimistic impression to the readers in the first place, but if the readers stop there and don’t go further into searching the data comparison from the past and the data descriptions, they will likely keep their ignorant optimism towards the employment situation in the United States. As one of the most influential publishers in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal should be responsible to provide the complete context to the data they post, which is way more trustworthy than simply providing the data. This is important because most readers, including myself, tend to read only the title or the first and last paragraph when they are trying to skim through an article. Unless the article is important to them, they wouldn’t bother to spend more time on it. Under such circumstance, it becomes the publishers’ responsibility to keep their articles’ titles and first/last paragraphs precise and well informed, otherwise they will likely to mislead their readers that are only reading these parts of their articles. As a reader myself, I’m totally aware of the possibility of being misled by these parts of the articles. When I’m trying to stay well informed, I will try to search on multiple sources to get more perspectives and avoid biases. Such method is especially useful when it comes to the international news where publishers from different countries will have different perspectives based on their positions.
Wendi Su
It’s kind of pathetic that more and more news try to use clickbait to catch people’s attention and increase views. It’s easy to attract people with some exaggerated headlines, however, you will find it’s total nonsense after you read it. Sometimes you will find it’s even a different story! There is too much going on around the world, some people tend to read just the headlines instead of the whole news. In this case, clickbait can mislead the readers and it’s irresponsible as news publishers. Personally, I think news with statistically significant numbers is more trustworthy. But some news use exaggerated numbers on purpose to raise people’s awareness. After you read it, you will find these numbers have nothing to go with the news! News is supposed to provide us information and knowledge on the current topic. It’s a source to inspire and improve us. In my opinion, there should be some policy to protect readers from misleading and fake news. Zhengbiao Ji
It’s saddening to see the way companies are taking advantage of our clicks by posting fancy titles. For example, a few months ago I was scrolling down my Facebook homepage and a post came up with the title “CLICK HERE FOR A FREE GIFT” which made me excited enough to check out. As soon as I clicked on the link there was nothing but a random story about the company. Now I can relate to what happened because last semester I took digital marketing where I got learn the way companies take advantage of native marketing in a negative way. It’s all about the heading to attract people and get views!
Misleading headlines; Fake News; Lies; and Propaganda; Are all words that seem to have surfaced in a time of uncertainty, or in a time where shared information is questioned because of the potential leadership and political controversy within the United States. This matter of misleading information is new to me (even as an adult). I can remember hearing information perhaps by the way of three forms; the news on television; the newspaper, and word of mouth through, friends and family. In today’s culture news is shared on many platforms that are easily accessible to everyone, Facebook and Instagram being the popular distribution of news.
Some might see this as disruptive to the original intended purpose of shared information, but we’ve learned so much about how information is delivered and the integrity of the source from which information is coming from. I’ve learned, in my personal life, that there are always more sides to a story than the information shared with you at the moment, particularly because of perception. Perception refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously experienced” (Lumen) which could be different for everyone. At an individualistic level, I haven’t taken much effort to research information I hear or read. I didn’t think this was necessary until the introduction to our Consumer Behavior course. However, because of this, and my findings, I’ve learned that asking questions can lead to a perceived impression that interpersonal skills help with authenticity and overall connection, which is also known as the ACT criteria (Burnison, 2019). In the case of misleading headlines, its highlighted that I haven’t been so connected to the information I listen to.
At the moment, my morning routine is to watch NBC News as my source of information concerning local and global news. I know this doesn’t seem like much of a source, but I haven’t been trained to think that information from a network like NBC News needed to be challenged. I suppose that through my upbringing because the information was shared by the way of a televisions news anchor, that this was legitimate enough to count as solid information. For obvious reasons, this mindset has unquestionably thrown off my balance, regarding information and I’ll be digging deeper to learn for myself and not to get lost in the cross-talk and miss the opportunity to disprove or challenge how I receive and share information.
References:
Burnison, Gary, and Contributor. “Stop Asking 'How Are You?' Harvard Researchers Say This Is What Successful People Do When Making Small Talk.” CNBC, CNBC, 21 Mar. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/03/07/stop-asking-how-are-you-harvard-researchers-say-this-is-how-successful-people-make-small-talk.html.
Learning, Lumen. “Introduction to Psychology.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/msstate-waymaker-psychology/chapter/reading-what-is-perception/.
Jonathan Antoshka
Rairis Morrobel Comment
Fake news big exiting headlines are the new small prints of sneaky contracts. Reading this blog about unemployment makes me question the lies politicians share in order to win elections. This big juicy headline about the increment of jobs might be the strategy of politicians to win the trust of the people, it also makes me upset because I know that a lot of people get foul by this fake news. Because the average American will no do deep research to verify this information. I know because at the time we are living with information to our fingertips and some people differ to use it. I have been a victim of those fake headliners, I was surfing on Google looking for scholarships, I put all my requested information. Turns out it was a scam and now those people shared my information with other companies who call me daily for different offers.
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