Developing statistical literacy and numeracy in journalists for health risk communication

The public’s perception of health risks can be influenced by the media, so journalists play a vital role in the communication of health risks to society. Numeracy and statistical literacy are important skills for health literacy and data literacy. However, previous literature has found that some journalists and journalism students have low numeric confidence levels and a wide range of numeric abilities. Some journalists also report having maths anxiety. The aim of this thesis was to improve journalism students’ statistical literacy and numeracy levels to support effective health risk communication. First, we investigated journalism students’ subjective and objective numeracy levels, their interpretation of qualitative descriptors of risks and their preference for health risk communication. We found that most students had low to moderate levels of numeric confidence and a range of objective numeric abilities, with some performing well. We also identified an area of numeracy that some students struggled with, i.e. relative risk. The results informed the development of an education intervention with journalism students. We tested the impact of this intervention using a before-and-after study, and improvements were observed in both numeric confidence and ability to interpret medical statistics. Qualitative feedback supported our findings, with participants reporting an increase in self-efficacy. We also created and implemented an evaluation framework for a well-established education intervention for health journalists in practice in the United States to improve their ability to interpret and reliably report the results of medical research. We compared the statistical literacy and numeracy levels of the two groups and the impact of the interventions. We found that both interventions increased numeric confidence levels and ability to interpret medical statistics. Additionally, our short education intervention for journalism students resulted in a similar increase in ability to interpret medical statistics as a longer one. Overall, this research can contribute to appropriate and responsible reporting of health research by journalists, which can support the public in making informed decisions on their health and well-being.