Fact Checking, Fake News and Evaluating Resources: Media Literacy

A guide to statistical literacy in the classroom

Critical questions for students to ask of statistical claims in news media

The following list of questions provides a good start for any story with a flashy claim.

1. Problem
• Is the question asked clear in relation to the “answer” provided?

2. Plan
• Is it clear how the data was collected? The “sample”? The sample size?
• Is the sample voluntary in nature? Why would this be important?
• For surveys, who paid for them? Could this be significant for the results reported?

3. Data
• Does the report actually detail what data has been used and the related context?

4. Analysis
• If there is a statistic presented, does it make sense in the context? Is it accurate?
• Are any presented graphs misleading?
• Are graphs labelled correctly and meaningfully?
• Would this graph tell the same story if it were in a different form (e.g. bar or pie graph) or if the scale were changed?

5. Conclusion
• What conclusions are drawn on the basis of the statistics? How strong are the adjectives that describe the results? Are they exaggerated to attract a headline?
• Is any uncertainty acknowledged?
• Is the claim “too good to be true”?

6. General critical questions
• What questions would you ask the investigator or the reporter about the article?
• Does the article present enough information about how the study was carried out to reach a conclusion?

A question that arises is: how can we be confident that students will be able to answer these questions by the time they reach middle school? The Australian Curriculum is helpful here in suggesting activities for the early years (Foundation and Year 1) that use children’s natural curiosity to start investigating the practice of statistics.

"Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they're sending. Kids take in a huge amount of information from a wide array of sources, far beyond the traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines) of most parents' youth. There are text messages, memes, viral videos, social media, video games, advertising, and more. But all media shares one thing: Someone created it. And it was created for a reason. Understanding that reason is the basis of media literacy."

Source: Common Sense Media

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