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Basic Economics and Mathematics for Investigative Journalists

KWAKU KROBEA ASANTE

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About MFWA

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About me

Kwaku Krobea Asante

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Content

Summary statistics

Basic computations

Macro-economic indicators

Calculating the value of money

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Content

  • “Follow the money” is the catchphrase for modern-day journalism
  • It comes with analysing the figures and crunching the numbers

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Data journalism is about numbers

Journalists can no longer be said to “fear” numbers and mathematics

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  • John Allen Paulos (1995) highlights some instances where journalists fail to apply mathematics correctly
  • Misleading statistics in reporting crimes
  • Misuse of percentages in political polls
  • Overgeneralization of Medical Studies
  • The Availability Bias in News Reporting

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  • Readers should demand more from journalists beyond “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “how”, but also “how likely”, “compared to what”

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Basic summary statistics (central tendency)

  • Mode
  • Mean
  • Median

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Central tendency

Mode: Value that appears frequently

Mean: The average of all the data points

Median: The average of all the data points

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Basic computation

  • Percentage Change (growth rate)

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Macroeconomic indicators

  • GDP
  • Unemployment rate
  • Consumer Price Index
  • Inflation Rate
  • Exchange Rate

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Computing time value of money

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Time Value of Money (TVM)

  • Using exchange rates (restricted)

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  • Inflation (CPI)

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Calculating TVM using exchange rates

Using historical exchange rates data

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Calculating TVM

Using inflation adjustments

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Thank you!