What I Learned - Week 6

I found that this week’s discussions were very fascinating.  My classmates and I all discovered that our mass media articles were littered with inconsistencies and misinformation.  My article, on violent video games, had quite a few bits of information incorrect.  The biggest problem I had with the article was the fact that it stated that one of the goals of the particular game was to compete with one another, when the study clearly states that the game was cooperative.  

I was particularly struck by the amount of local slant the Washington Post had on Andrew’s discussion.  His article title seemed to be almost in direct contrast to the titles of the multiple other articles that quote the exact same study.  I think that journalists are doing a major disservice to the public when they misrepresent information to readers because a lot of the times, these types of articles are often quoted to shape public policy.  It seems to me that journalists need to be more responsible in presenting survey results in a straightforward, readable way and not put any type of spin to the data.  Then again, I am talking about something that journalists have struggled with for generations.

I feel as though data analysis is one of my strongest skills when it comes to research.  I am comfortable working with number and Excel, and all of the types of analyses make good sense to me.  I think that hard numbers are a great way to confirm or refute hypotheses as they relate to research questions.