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Journalism: Statistics

This guide will help Journalism students find and evaluate key resources needed to successfully complete their assessments.

What are statistics?

 

Statistics draws conclusion from data in a way that communicates information. They are: 

  • Often produced by government agencies or non-profit organizations
  • Often free to view/ download
  • Located by identifying the agency or organization that focuses on a specific research area of interest

Searching for statistics

 

Google is a great place to start searching for statistics. Below are some tips for searching Google to help you find the most relevant results. 

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Tip: The phrase site:gov.au searches for information found on Australian government websites.

Example: site:gov.au statistics unemployment

 

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Tip: Click the search button under the Google search box to open the search in Google. 
 
 
Google Web Search

Other recommended databases 

 

Evaluating statistics 

 

Apply the same evaluation tools to verifying statistics as you would scholarly information. 

  1. Who collected it?
  2. What are the credentials of the producer?
  3. Who sponsored the data collection?
  4. When was the data collected?
  5. Is the data biased or representative of all factions?
  6. Do other sources provide similar findings?