Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
the journalist walked around and chatted up a few people who were hanging around. Anecdotes are a poor yet common substitute for facts.
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And an especially common amongst journalists -- find yourself an anecdotal yet interesting story. Write it up. Then the editor saddles it with a headline which includes words like "trend" and "increasingly".
An article a couple of years back trumpeting the rising trend of Chinese studies in American education focused entirely on a single California school district, which an en passant mention of a New Jersey school at the very end. Turns out the "trend" was Chinese class enrollment increasing from 200 to 275 students in a districting with 75,000 students, some thirty percent of whom were second generation Chinese immigrants. Hardly a representative district.
The problem with news reporting is "A Few B&N stores closing" doesn't sell newspapers. "B&N Bankrupt! Internet Kills Bookstores!" (complete with exclamation points) does.
--Nathanael