When News Corp journos do maths
Demographics has never been Dr Mumbo’s strong point.
But then again, he suspects that maths has never been the Adelaide Advertiser’s strong point either.
Or perhaps there’s another explanation available for why, in a nation of 24 million, 36 million of them are apparently on prescriptions for mental health medications.
(The answer, by the way, would appear to lie with the fact that this was the number of prescriptions issued, not the number of Australians.)
Still, the publication comes from the same stable as the Daily Telegraph, which over Christmas performed some deep demographic analysis in order to advise women that the best places to meet men are in suburbs with prisons.
Dr Mumbo presumes the anguished expression on the face of the image library model represents a News Corp journo trying to do maths.
That’s because they’re too busy yelling ‘freeze peach’ and ‘we’re under attack by social keyboard warriors’ (whatever that means) to learn to count. Plus, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
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This struck a chord with me as a former business journalist at a News Corp publication, I was frequently asked by other non-business journos to do maths for them – the assumption being that because business involves lots of numbers (stock prices, market capitalisation, etc.) I must have been good at maths. Lucky I had a calculator on my desk.
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FAKE NEWS!!!!
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Anything passes for analytical truth at News Corp these days … including circulation and readership figures.
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Their picture editing is as lousy as their sub-editing these days.
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Well.. with 12 million in London selling lattes and running the country, and another five populating New Zealand I’m surprised they undercounted so badly.
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Mark – percentagecalculator.net is what I have outsourced all mathematical ability to.
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