Saturday February 04, 2012

CCJ Books

The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

Completely updated and revised
"The most important book on the relationship of journalism and democracy published in the last fifty years." – Roy Peter Clark, The Poynter Institute
We Interrupt This Newscast: How to Improve Local News and Win Ratings, Too

Just Released
A landmark study on what people watch and why. The most exhaustive study ever of local TV news -- what helps ratings, what drives viewers away, and what editorial approaches and story-telling techniques most influence viewership.

Percent Changes

Robert Niles, Editor - Online Journalism Review, July 29, 2006

Percent changes are useful to help people understand changes in a value over time. Again, figuring this one requires nothing more than third-grade math.

Simply subtract the old value from the new value, then divide by the old value. Multiply the result by 100 and slap a % sign on it. That's your percent change.

That's:  New minus Old divided by Old, multiplied by 100.

Let's say Springfield had 50 murders last year, as did Capital City. So there's no difference in crime between these cities, right? Maybe, maybe not. Let's go back and look at the number of murders in those towns in previous years, so we can determine a percent change.

Five years ago, Capital City had 42 murders while Springfield had just 29.
Subtract the old value from the new one for each city and then divide by the old values. That will show you that, over a five year period, Capital City had a 19 percent increase in murders, while Springfield's increase was more than 72 percent.
That's your lead.

Or is it? There's something else to consider when computing percent change. Take a look at per capita to find out.