John Bailer (Miami University of Ohio)
Abstract
How do you learn about what’s going on in the world? Does a news headline grab your attention? Does a news story report on recent research? What do you need to know to be a critical consumer of the news you read? What role does statistics play in understanding the world and in the translation and communication of stories? In this talk, I describe strategies and a framework to inspire your students to develop critical news consumption and data "self-defense" skills. My comments will arise from a long-term collaboration with journalists to consider how a tactic promoting quantitative literacy led to a podcast exploring the 'statistics behind the stories and the stories behind the statistics' and a book that did the same.
Bio Sketch: A. John Bailer is emeritus professor of statistics at Miami University. He retired after 34 years at Miami University where he was university distinguished professor and founding chair of the Department of Statistics. He was ISI President 2019-2021, and previously served on the ASA Board of Directors. He is an ASA Fellow and a fellow in the Society for Risk Analysis and the AAAS.
Effective communication of statistics and promoting statistical literacy is a passion for him; he collaborates with journalists on the 10 year old podcast Stats+Stories and co-authored the recently released book Statistics Behind the Headlines.