Responding to criticism that current statistics courses are irrelevant or too difficult for many journalism majors, curriculum committee members of the Medill School of Journalism will assess options this year to restructure the requirement to make it more applicable for aspiring reporters.

“It is an issue that a lot of students seem to be afraid of numbers,” said Richard Roth, associate dean of Medill. “What they don’t realize is that in every story they write, there’s some understanding of math and statistics and data. What we’re talking about is putting it into journalism terms for them.”

All Medill students are required to take a quarter of statistics out of the 45 courses needed to graduate. Students must now fulfill this requirement by taking a course in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Many opt to take 200-level courses such as Introduction to Statistics or Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences.

“It was probably one of the worst classes I’ve taken at NU,” said Medill junior Cherise Lopez about her freshman-year statistics course. “I for one didn’t see the relevance with the journalism field.”

Faculty members are considering the addition of a Medill discussion section for current statistics courses, developing a course within the statistics department that would relate to journalism, or — the most dramatic option — creating a separate statistics course that would be taught within Medill, said Rich Gordon, associate professor and co-chairman of the curriculum committee.

Gordon said a knowledge of statistical methods such as sampling error, question wording and polling is essential for all journalists.

“If you are a reporter, you are going to write about subjects where statistics comes into play,” he said. “Too many journalists take whatever they’re given in a poll or medical study and don’t have the expertise to ask the right questions or to interpret those results for a reader who knows even less about statistics than the journalist does.”

Practical application?

A common problem among many Medill students is that because they often don’t understand how statistics relates to their field of choice, they put off taking the course.

Michelle Edgar, a fifth-year Medill and School of Music double major, left her statistics requirement until her second-to-last quarter at NU and calls her Introduction to Statistics class a “complete waste of time.”

“I don’t see how any of the information is relevant to journalism or how it could be applied to writing a story,” she said.

Edgar said she supports the idea of a separate journalism-oriented statistics course. Many other Medill students agreed, saying they liked the idea of a course that would cater to their major.

“That class — statistics for journalism — sounds interesting because it pertains more to what we’ll be doing in our future career,” said Rob Moynihan, a Medill freshman.

But Medill freshman Ann Clark said she would prefer a standard Weinberg course.

“We should have to take the regular statistics course because I think it would make us more well-rounded in evaluating things that pertain to journalism,” said Clark. “Some people just aren’t good at math, but if they put in the effort into the real statistics class, it’ll pay off.”

Not dumbing down

Although Clark pointed out that she, like many other Medill students, is “not a math person at all,” statistics professors countered that the journalism students they’ve taught over the years have not had more difficulty than other students.

“I’ve had terrific Medill students in introductory statistics courses,” said statistics Prof. Bruce Spencer. “Could you be a well-trained journalist and not understand at least the basics of statistics? I would doubt that.”

Gordon agreed that Medill students are fully capable of learning statistics. He added that creating a new course within Medill would not be giving journalism students an easy way out.

“I don’t see it as ‘dumbing down’ at all,” Gordon said. “I’m not saying this course wouldn’t be challenging. I wouldn’t want to create ‘Statistics for Idiots’ for Medill students.”

Although there is no set timeline for the statistics discussions to begin or for a conclusion to be reached, Gordon said plans for a separate Medill statistics class may be stalled by financial concerns.

A Nationwide trend

Other journalism schools around the country already have implemented their own statistics courses separate from the rest of their universities.

At Arizona State University, students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication are required to take Media Research Methods during their junior year. Stephen Doig, Cronkite interim director, said the course was created after journalism faculty members acknowledged that ASU’s math department had “a different mission” that was not appropriate for Cronkite students who aren’t going into the statistics field.

“I strongly believe that all journalism students should have a good grounding and understanding in things like polling and medical research and probabilities,” Doig said. “We serve them better by making them literate in the kind of statistics that they will run into in the newsroom and on the job.”

Reach Andrea Chang at [email protected].

Quick facts:

 Medill students must take one statistics class of their 45 courses needed to graduate.

 Statistics classes now go through the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

 The Medill curriculum committee is reviewing options such as adding a Medill discussion section for current classes or starting a new, journalism-focused statistics class.