In December 2020, the RSS joined forces with Bournemouth University and the Association of British Science Writers for a joint symposium on ‘Coronavirus, statistical chaos and the news: preliminary reflections from journalists and scholars’.
Organised by An Nguyen, associate professor of journalism at Bournemouth University, fifteen senior and award-winning British science, health and data journalists gathered along with ten leading statisticians, media scholars and health scientists to examine challenges and approaches to news communication of Covid-19 data and statistics.
A keynote speech was given by former RSS vice-president for external affairs, Kevin McConway and there were contributions from David Spiegelhalter, Timandra Harkness, Tom Chivers, Pamela Duncan of the Guardian and the Times’ science editor, Tom Whipple – along with many others.
Read the full report (pdf)
Watch all the event sessions on YouTube.
Access the conference presentations:
Opening notes by An Nguyen (pptx)
Session 1: Keynote speech: Will coronavirus lead to new ways of reporting on statistics? Kevin McConway (pptx)
Session 2: Panel discussion: Data journalism in the time of Covid, Pamela Duncan (pdf)
Session 3: Bringing scientists and journalists together in an unprecedented crisis: the Science Media Centre experience, Fiona Lethbridge (pptx)
Session 4: PA Media approach to Covid-19 data, Jane Kirby (pptx)
Session 4: Breaking tomorrow’s news today at the Evening Standard: How to get it right (or wrong) when writing Covid news, Ross Lydall (pptx)
Session 5: How the Economist has collected and analysed Covid-19 data - James Tozer, James Fransham and Sondre Solstad (pptx)
Session 5: Humanising COVID-19 data through data comics and graphic medicine, Anna Feigenbaum (pptx)
Session 6: Susceptibility to Covid-19 misinformation: Inoculation gaming as a potential way to reduce the effect of low numeracy skills and analytical thinking, Jon Roozenbeek (pptx)
Abstracts and programme (docx)
Read An Nguyen’s commentary for Journalism.co.uk.