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Abstract
This essay presents data from a census of statistics requirements and offerings at all 4-year journalism programs in the United States (N = 369) and proposes a model of a potential course in statistics for journalism majors. The author proposes that three philosophies underlie a statistics course for journalism students. Such a course should (a) represent a statistics course with journalism, not a journalism course seasoned with a few statistics; (b) encourage awareness of error and skepticism of omniscience of official figures; and (c) cultivate statistical enthusiasts, not formulae repositories. Findings report students in just one fifth of U.S. journalism programs are required to take statistics, and none of those programs offer a course within their own academic unit that fulfills a traditional statistics requirement.
Keywords statistics, journalism, curriculum, data, undergraduate education, numeracy
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Author Biography
Justin D. Martin is an assistant professor of journalism at Northwestern University in Qatar. His research focuses primarily on media and politics in Arab countries, but he also studies quantitative matters in journalism and journalism education. Martin’s PhD is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
