The use of figures, or data, in media interviews and public speaking is increasingly contentious. The first point, of course, is that any data referred to must be accurate. This, in itself, has become a hot topic. Data can be misused. Then, once we know a piece of data is accurate there is the need to make sure your data makes sense, or resonates, with your target public(s). Too, too often, data is banded around in a way that is meaningless. Simply quoting million or billions of something doesn’t actually mean much to most people. You have to make sure your figures hit home. How do you do this? Recent thinking is providing us with new ways of offering up key data. The need to know how to do this is of premium importance. This became abundantly clear in our most recent media training course with public health advocates drawn from across the world. How often do you use data and how do you serve up data? Big questions now being answered.
One simple trick with certain figures is to compare them to things that can be visualised, like comparing a refugee camp to the size of a capital city, populations, things that can fit into a football ground, ex. Mosul’s population is a big as Edinburgh’s. This is not always appropriate for big data and more complex issues. We did something on these lines at the start of the battle of Mosul last October: https://web.facebook.com/NRCMiddleEast/videos/vb.314984988650391/715975378551348/?type=2&theater
Hi – that’s one good way of approaching the tricky issue of how to use data.
Mervyn