Data should be used as evidence and not illustration

I read the Guardian article on journalist’s struggles with “data literacy” with interest. The piece concentrates on inaccurate reporting through a lack of understanding of numbers, and the context around them. “Honest mistakes”, of a sort. Taken more cynically, it is an example of a fallacy that I see regularly in many different  disciplines (I’m [...]

Mediatel Media Playground 2011

My previous blog post covered my notes on Broadcast in a Multi-Platform World, which I felt was the best session of the day. Below are my notes from the other 3 sessions (I didn’t take any notes during the bonus Olympics session) The data debate Chaired by Torin Douglas, Media Correspondent for the BBC Speakers: [...]

Treating respondents as commodities

Treating respondents as commodities – don’t do it, kids. Yet it happens, particularly with online surveys. I recently had a sales call with a provider who said that their panel was no better or worse than any competitor; they sought to differentiate themselves via client management and survey aesthetics. This experience is backed up by [...]

Spreading birthday cheer

Yesterday was my birthday. Among the birthday messages I received was an email from Stick Sports. This is an online game that I hadn’t thought about for a while, let alone played. Yet they used the information I provided in my sign-up, to send me a message. This in turn has reminded me of the [...]

Avoiding insights

I really don’t like using the word “insight”. As I wrote here, the word is hideously overused. Rather than being reserved for hidden or complex knowledge, it is used to describe any observation, analysis or piece of intelligence. And so I’ve avoided using it as much as possible. In an earlier tweet, I referred to [...]

If data is the new oil, we need a bigger drill

“Data is the new oil” is a phrase I’ve heard a few times recently, notably from Gerd Leonhard. And it has the potential to be true. Data can be extremely powerful and extremely valuable (though I’m a researcher, so I would say that). Yet few companies seem to be exploiting this to its full potential. [...]