The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "median" ...
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Math for Journalists: Stats you need to know
Donald's presentation discusses why the use of statistics is important for journalists, and how stats enable the reporter to say the most with the data they're using. The tipsheet talks you through some of the lingo you need to know when dealing with stats, and provide a list of helpful resources.
Tags: stats; regression; dependent variables; independent variables; data; mean; median; range; rank
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Statistics for stories
Donald and LaFleur provide tips on how to analyze, organize and understand all things data-related in order to find statistics within the information. They give detailed explanations of types of data that reporters will encounter, and explain how to work with and break-down all of the different parts.
Tags: statistics; data; investigative reporting; statistical analysis; Gini coefficient; mean; median; range; rank; regression; continuous data; categorical data
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Statistics For the Newsroom
This comprehensive guide to incorporating statistics into a story is a good refresher for seasoned reporters and a great introduction to CAR newbies. LaFleur covers different types of data, different forms of analysis (mean, median, regression, rank, correlation, etc), ideas for beat reporters, and instructions for calculating indexes.
Tags: statistics; beat reporting; data analysis; math
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Don't Know Much About Algebra: Math in the Newsroom
This PowerPoint presentation provides a plan on how to use math and understand statistics, and disseminate these numbers in an understandable way in stories. Questions such as mean vs. median are used to illustrate the importance of knowing how to incorporate numbers, and which statistics to use in reporting.
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Excel for beginners: Geek Glossary
This tipsheet explains some basic Microsoft Excel functions, such as "sum" and "percent of total." Cervantes explains not only how to do these calculations, but also how to use them to enhance your reporting.
Tags: data analysis; Excel; spreadsheet; mean; median; mode; average; computer-assisted reporting
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Statistics for the Newsroom
This tipsheet is a good reference for how to safely and effectively incorporate statistics into your stories. The authors discuss various kinds of statistics, and give examples of the correct way to use each of them. The tipsheet also lists common errors and how to avoid them.
Tags: math; numbers; statistics; categorical data; mean; median; mode; average
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Eight Safeguards: A Stats Checklist
This tipsheet lists eight things to consider when incorporating statistics into your reporting. It covers everything from doing the work to lurking variables. Hacker and Donald give an in-depth explanation and examples for each piece of advice.
Tags: statistics; math; calculations; skewed data; mean; median; mode; Excel; analysis; numbers; SPSS
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Stats for stories: Some pluses and minuses that may divide you from multiples of other journalists
This tipsheet gives an outline of basic and advanced statistics tools. It includes simple ways of calculating percentages to regression analysis.
Tags: statistics; databases; regression; averages; median; mode; indexes
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CAR from start to finish: The data is in - now what?
Tamman details what a savvy journalist needs to do to become intimately acquainted with the data they are using for a story. He offers ways journalists should look at data beyond the obvious. Also included are tips about packaging, writing and being fair with data.
Tags: CAR; data; database; dataset; interviewing; analysis; outliers; medians; average; rates; statistics; mapping; editing; lottery; education; writing
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Stored Procedures and Cursors with SQL Server
Ericson provides examples of how to calculate "medians, ranks, percentiles, quintiles and crosstabs in Microsoft SQL Server." This tipsheet can also be found at http://www.ericson.net/sql/
Tags: SQL Server; CAR; medians; ranks; percentiles; quintiles; cross tabs