Presenting%20and%20Communicating%20Gender%20Statistics

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Presenting and Communicating Gender Statistics

• Workshop on Gender Statistics
• Geneva, October 2008

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Objective

• Gain skills in data presentation and
  dissemination to highlight gender issues

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Workshop outline

• Dissemination vs communication
• Statistical storytelling
• A journalists perspective
• Putting it into practice

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disseminationvscommunication
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• disseminate
• verb (used with object), -nated, -nating.
• to scatter or spread widely, as though sowing
  seed promulgate extensively broadcast
  disperse.
• Dictionary.com

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• communicate
• verb (used with object)
• 1. to impart knowledge of make known to
  communicate information.
• 2.to give to another impart transmit.
• Dictionary.com

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dissemination

• communication

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education programs
media
lobby groups
Newspapers Radio Television
politicians
Internet
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statistical storytelling
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Storytelling

• What is a statistical story?
• Why tell a story?
• How to write one

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On their own, statistics are just numbers
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• Why should my audience want to read about this?

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Why tell a story?

1. Mandate is to inform
2. Demonstrate the relevance of data

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Considerations

• Inform and initiate discussion
• Accurate information
• Independent and unbiased
• Guarantee confidentiality
• Consider vulnerable groups

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To achieve this we must

• Know what is going on in the world
• Communicate with users of statistics
• User surveys
• Focus groups
• Meet with users
• Monitor website usage and call centre enquiries

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how to write a statistical story
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Whats the story?
Technical report released today New survey
results now available Women and Men publication
now on-line
The results and findings are the story
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Identify a theme

• International days
• Year of the .
• Current events
• Holidays
• Half-way to MDG deadline
• A series on The way we live now

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8 March International Womens Day
22 March World Day for Water
15 May International Day of Families
20 June World Refugee Day
11 July World Population Day
12 August World Youth Day
1 October International Day of Older Persons
15 October International Day of Rural Women
25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Source http//www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/calen
dar_days_weeks_08.html
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Writing tips

• 1. Write like a journalist inverted pyramid
  style

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Writing tips

• The first paragraph is the most important. It
  should
• Send a clear message
• Grab the readers attention
• Contain few or no numbers
• Be short and to the point
• Focus on 1-2 findings

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• Poor
• A new study probes the relationship between
  parental education and income and participation
  in post-secondary education from 1993 to 2001.

Good Despite mounting financial challenges
during the 1990s, young people from moderate and
low-income families were no less likely to attend
university in 2001 than they were in 1993.
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• Poor
• Latest figures on information technology usage
  show that in the 1st quarter of 2008, two thirds
  of Estonian population aged 1674 used computers
  and the Internet, as in the previous year.

Better Two thirds of Estonian adults used the
Internet in recent months.
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putting it in practice
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Activity the lead paragraph

1. Read through the paragraph allocated to your
   group
2. Work on your own for 5 minutes to come up with a
   better example
3. Discuss these in your groups and agree on a final
   lead paragraph

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Lessons learned

• It takes time to come up with a good lead
  paragraph
• There is no contradiction between getting
  attention and being accurate
• Which key points to highlight depends on the
  message you want to send
• Lead paragraph can be followed by more details
  that explain the findings

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Writing tips

• Language that people understand
• Short sentences, short paragraphs
• One main idea per paragraph
• Subheadings
• Bulleted lists for easy scanning
• Rounded numbers

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Things to avoid

• Elevator statistics
• Jargon and technical terms
• Acronyms
• All capital letters and all italics
• Table reading

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Headlines

• Be informative, appealing, magnetic, interesting
  and newsy
• Attract the reader
• Most important finding
• One line of type
• Not try to tell everything
• Contain few numbers, if any at all

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• Not good
• New report released today
• Energy conservation measures widespread
• Prices up in domestic and import markets

• Good
• Gasoline prices hit 10-year low
• Crime down third year in a row
• July oil prices levelled off in August

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Activity - the headline

• There are two press releases with the headline
  removed
• What do you think would make a good headline?
• Work on your own for a few minutes
• Then discuss it in your groups

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Lessons learned

• Message that will attract the reader may not be
  what you think is the most important finding
• Statistical information can fit a range of themes

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Summary

• Dissemination vs communication
• Why tell a story?
• Remember themes and news
• Write like a journalist
• Lead paragraph
• Headline