Data as people

Total suggested time: 50 minutes

When you’re in the thick of an analysis, trying to wrangle messy data and often counterintuitive technology, it can be easy to forget what the numbers actually represent. In many cases, the data you’re working with – cases, hospitalizations, car crashes, overdoses, shootings – is about people and their lives.

The goal of this exercise is to back away from the technical part of data journalism and think about the meaning numbers can convey.

Group work: Three portrayals of death

Suggested time: 10 minutes

Students should split into three groups. Assign each group one of the following three views of the death toll of COVID-19.

• Group 1: COVID Tracking Project
• Group 2: The Washington Post
• Group 3: The New York Times

As a group, students should take about 10 minutes to answer the following questions:

• What was the goal of the journalists who produced this content?
• What message are they attempting to convey to their audience?
• What techniques are they using to communicate the information?
• What context are they leaving out as they communicate that information?
• As a member of the audience, what emotions does this content trigger as you view it?

Class discussion: Audience impact

Suggested time: 20 minutes

At the end of the 10 minutes, each group should take about 5 minutes to share the content they reviewed and summarize their discussion for the class.

When each group has presented, answer the following questions as a class:

• Which of these portrayals of the COVID-19 death toll resonate most with you?
• How does the use of emotional appeal impact the effectiveness of the communication?
• How can the use of emotional appeal interfere with the underlying message?

Class exercise: Updating the death toll

Suggested time: 20 minutes

All three of these portrayals of the COVID-19 death toll are dated. Give students a few minutes on their own to look up the most updated COVID-19 death toll they can find and share both the number and the source of the data with the class.

Then, as a class:

• Select the death toll figure you think is most reliable, based on the source and any other information students find during their brief research.
• Use what you’ve discussed during your analysis of the previous portrayals of the death toll to brainstorm ideas for a new one, based on the updated number

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