Statistical reasoning instruction in college-level journalism education

What is it about?

Twin surveys of the chairs of undergraduate journalism programs in the United States, conducted 11 years apart, revealed that those who perceived benefits from statistical reasoning instruction were more likely to reward entrepreneurship (faculty attempts to integrate this instruction into their classes), but with slow gains over time in the fairly small number of such faculty. Increasingly, however, the chairs took into account what they saw as the general value of statistical reasoning for their students and the competitive edge it could give them in the journalism job market.

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Why is it important?

Numeracy and statistical reasoning abilities are becoming increasingly important cognitive skills in professional journalism and journalism education, even though journalism programs and their students have often been reluctant to engage this instruction. SAT data over time show that incoming journalism students, on average, should be able to handle university-level statistics and statistical reasoning as well as other incoming freshmen.