Avoid Disinformation Generated by Fake News Discussion

One of the goals of this course is to teach you enough of the basic concepts of statistics that you can critically evaluate sources of data, claims, and published research. Statisticians collect numerical data from subgroups of populations to find out everything imaginable about the population as a whole, including whom they favor in an election, what they watch on TV, how much money they make, or what worries them. Comedians and statisticians joke that 62.38% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Because statisitcans both record and influence our behavoir it is important to distinguish between good and bad methods for collecting, presenting, and interpreting data. Upon completion of this activity, you will determine the techniques you will use to evaluate the credibility of information and statistical claims. These techniques will prove to be useful to you not only  in this course but, other courses you are taking, your future career, and in your everyday life! 

For this discussion you will be evaluating the source of the interesting claim of your choice. In Chapter 1, you learned that a claim is a statement about a property or characteristic of the population. Your claim can be one from your textbook, one that you read about on the Internet or Social Media page, or it can be one that was reported on the news.

Discussion Board Resources

• Fake News or Real? How to Self-Check the News and Get the Facts
• How to Recognize a Fake News Story
• Tips for analyzing news sources