After learning about the use of numbers in news articles, including that of survey stories and there relevance, I found myself looking out for survey stories in the newspapers I was reading. In Tuesday’s edition of the daily mail I managed to discover a survey story which made me think about its relevance.
Firstly the small column on page 19 of the Daily mail, with the headline: Big brother make the biggest bully. The sample size is small; only 195 children aged 10-12 with siblings over 4 years older than themselves, carried out by Dr Ersilia Menesini. The relevance of this survey was hard to find, but ultimately had the conclusion that children with older brothers were more likely to be bullied at home. The evaluation of the results found in the survey then seem to be more of an opinion than actual fact found in the survey, as Dr Menesini states that: ‘It could be that Older sisters are raised to be more responsible...’
This conclusion seems based on very little fact, the survey seems of very little importance or validity, the sample size is very small, undertaken in Italy and the institution or company taking out the research is not named, therefore the survey seems to be of very little relevance or importance.
Well done - it very encouraging to see you searching through the papers for examples of what you've been taught.
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