Blog Assignment #1

D'innocenzio, Anne. "Consumer confidence rebounds to 52.5 in March - Forbes.com." Forbes.com. 30 Mar. 2010. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/03/30/general-us-economy_7475155.html?boxes=Homepagetopnews

1) The Conference Board Consumer Research Center did the survey.
2) No other sponsor is listed in the article, so the expenses should be taken by the Conference Board.
3) It is a monthly conducted survey, so I don’t think the sponsor have an interest in finding a particular result.
4) Yes, some information is included. The samples were randomly chosen, with a size of 5,000 households, and a cutoff date of March 23.
5) Yes. The article states the data and explained what each barometer means by several paragraphs. It also compares this survey with data from last few months and survey conducted by other institutions to analyze the economic situations this month.
6) None graph is used in this article.

Blog assignment #1

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/retirementspecial/04GYM.html; Written by John Hanc, In America's Gyms, More Than a Touch of Gray, The New York Times, March 3, 2010.

1) International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association conducted the survey.
2) Because IHRSA represents the nations health clubs tallying over 30,000 I would assume that they would help to sponsor the research.
3) The managers of the clubs would definitely have an interest in knowing the age groups of the people that are continually coming to use the gym. They are now designing their gyms to everything from special work-out machines and exercizes to the choice of music, in order to target the correct age group of their costomers.
4) Yes the sample included, adults over the age of 55. There are 30,022 health facilities. It states that the surveys are collected annually.
5) The results are stated as followed; "membership among adults 55 and older rose to 10.5 million in 2008, from 1.5 million in 1987, making this group the fastest-growing segment of the health club population"
6) There are no graphs included in this article from the New York Times.

Active People

The Active People Survey 3 was done by Sport England, published October 14, 2009.
http://www.sportengland.org/research/active_people_survey/active_people_survey_3.aspx

1. The study was conducted by ipsos MORI.
2. Sport England sponsored the research.
3. The has an interest in who is active in recreation or sports for the country of England. Knowing how many people are actively participating in certain sports will allow them to provide money for different facilities they provide and the donations tehy make towards other projects.
4. The survey used a large sample size of 363,000 people asked over a telephone at random.
5. Yes the results are labeled in clear manner. Also gives the ability to view the results geographically.
6. There are no graphs displayed in the survey.

Blog Assignment #1

"If your kids are awake they're probably online"
NYTimes.com
January 2010
Tamar Lewin

1. The study was done by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

2. No other sponsor was listed in the article.

3. They would be interested in finding how much the use of the internet and media devices has changed in American kids in recent years.

4. Yes, the article states the study was based on a survey of more than 2,000 students in grades 3-12. It does not, however, state anything about the randomness of the sample or how they chose the sample.

5. Yes, they are communicated clearly in the article. They explain the numbers and what they are now compared to the past.

6. No graphs are used for this.

blog assignment #1

Survey Finds Slack Editing on Magazine Websites

By Stephanie Clifford

Published: February 28, 2010

1. They survey was conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review.

2. No one sponsored the research, only the Columbia Journalism Review was involved.

3. CJR hoped the study would spark conversations about standards for magazines’ Web sites.  “This is the first attempt to at least get the data out there,” and would like the Columbia Journalism Review to hold a conference about the findings.”

4. The survey had specifically included information on methodology. The Columbia Journalism Review “surveyed 665 consumer magazines on the practices and profitability of their Web sites.” “For the project, Mr. Navasky and his researchers contacted about 3,000 magazines in the summer and fall of 2009, and 665 of them completed the survey.” Columbia plans to release the survey on Monday and publish it.

5. The results did communicate in a clear informative manner that showed enough statistical facts.

6. Both pie graphs was used in a clear informative manner.

Blog Assignment #1

Kim, Soyoung, and Deepa Seetharaman. "Toyota Says March U.S. Sales Rose About 35 Percent." ABC News/Money. Ed. Gerald E. McCormick. Reuters News Service, 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 30 Mar. 2010. .

1) Toyota Motor Corporation gathered the information on their sales for the month of March.

2) Since it is their own sales information they are gathering they sponsored the research.

3) The sponsor would have an interest in the results. Toyota would want to show that their sales are increasing dramatically to show that confidence in the company has bounced back since the massive recalls to fix unintended acceleration.

4) At one point the article states the 100 out of 1.7 million repairs did not fix the unintended acceleration, this did not include a sample size, but 17 million is an estimate. There was little information about methodology included in the article.

5) The results are stated clearly, the main statistic of 35% increase in sales was in the title, they concluded that confidence in cars made by Toyota Motor Corporation has risen back, somewhat due to very low prices.

6) There was not a graph included in the article.

Blog Assignment #1

Risks Seen in Cholesterol Drug Use in Healthy People

Duff Wilson; March 30, 2010; New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/business/31statins.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global

Link to study abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20167359

Study published in Lancet Medical Journal. February 27, 2010. Epub Feb. 16. Copyright Elsevier Ltd.

1. The study that found "that statins could raise a person's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 9 percent" was done by a group of individuals who are members of the British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow UK.

2. The abstract reads "FUNDING: None" which I assume to mean that whatever funding was used came from within the British Heart Foundation.

3. I do not think that this group has an interest in finding a particular result. They are part of a research university and do not appear to be funded by any group that would encourage them to find a particular result.

4. Information on the Methodology is included in the abstract, for which NYTimes.com provides a link. However there is no mention of methodology in the NYTimes.com article. The Methodology in the abstract says, "The group searched Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central REgister of Controlled Trials from 1994-2009, for randomised controlled endpoint trials of statins. [They] included only trials with more than 1000 patients, with identical follow-up in both groups and duration of more than 1 year. [They] excluded trials of patients with organ transplants or who needed haemodialsysis. [They] used the I(2) statistic to measure heterogeneity between trials and calculated risk estimates for incident diabetes with random-effect meta-analysis"

5. The results reported in the NYTimes article were reported in a clear manner and were reported responsibly, without error. The study did indeed find that overall, there was a 9% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

6. The NYTimes article did not include any graphs that were relevant to this statistic.

Sam Dolnick, The Obesity Hunger Paradox, New York Times, March 12 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/nyregion/14hunger.html?scp=1&sq=statistical%20survey&st=cse

1) This particular study was conducted by Gallup.
2) The research was sponsored by the Food Research and Action Center, which is a group that works to prevent hunger.
3) I don't believe the center has an interest in finding a particular result. It merely wants to use those results to correct a problem, if one is found, and also to determine the location of the problem. It is possible though that they want to use the results in order to persuade local governments or Federal governments to fix the hunger issues in the United States, especially in those areas it finds to be the worst off.
4) Not much information on methodology is included. Gallup took a sample of more than 530,000 people from across the U.S. but how the sample was chosen it does not say. Most likely the sample was chosen randomly but this is not certain.
5) The results are communicated in a clear and informative way. They are written in a small paragraph and show that at the state level the south is the hungriest. It then goes on to list the percentages for these states. It also reports national statistics for hunger from 2008-2010. The counties are not listed, and only a few are mentioned. The point is carried across though that the Bronx is the hungriest area and by state the south is hungriest. Nationally it showed that food hardship has dropped since 2008.
6) There are no graphs to show the statistics reported in this article.

Blog Assignment # 1

By: Neha Jindal / Healthy diet could cut inherent breast cancer—study/ The Med Guru/

Date: March 29, 2010

www.themedguru/20100329/newsfeature/healthy-diet-could-cut-inherent-breast-cancer-risk-study-86133550

1. The study was done by researchers from Queen University Bellfast in Northern Ireland.

2. It does not state any other names connected to the study except the researchers from Queen University, and the article is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

3. The lead researcher, Dr. Sarah Brennan could have interest in finding a particular result because she is a woman, and is looking for a way to lower the risk of getting inherent breast cancer.

4. In their study, researchers gathered data from eighteen previous studies which gave them access to 40,000 women results about their diets. The methodology they used is the 40,000 women from previous studies. It does not state whether or not the sampling is random or if there is a control group.

5. The results are presented in a clear manner. With these results concluded that there were three different possible types of diets the women could have; high contents of red meats and processed grains, a healthy diet that contains fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and differing levels of alcohol. It can be inferred that alcohol intake and breast cancer are linked.

6. There are no graphs that show the results of the study.

Blog Assignment #1

Study Puts Detroiters at Bottom of Nation's Spenders

By: Brian J. O'Connor / Detroit News Finance Editor

March 24, 2010

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100324/BIZ/3240322/1010/rss23

1. The study was done by Bundle.com from Citigroup. Their research contained data from the U.S. government and third party research.
2. I believe the sponsor for this article was Citigroup as there was no other specified third party in the article.
3. Citigroup, the sponsor for this article, could be trying to figure out where to expand their business. This would be a good study to use to expand their business because it shows where there are higher and lower income households, and where people would be more likely to open a bank account and save money with the bank.
4. The article did not specify what there methodology was for getting the data, although it did say that the surveyors excluded rent and mortgage payments from the study.
5. In my opinion, the results were communicated in a fairly clear manner, although they switch between the spending ranks from cities in the country, to spending ranks of states which made some of the information rather confusing.
6. There was a table at the side of the article that showed both the top 5 and bottom 5 spending cities in the United States. I thought that the table was easy to read, and gave the information in a pretty simple manner.

Blog Assignment #1

Survey Finds Slack Standards at Magazine Web Sites
By Stephanie Clifford
Published: February 28, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01mag.html?scp=3&sq=survey&st=cse

1. The survey was conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review, which is a bi-monthly publication of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

2. Outside of the study being linked to the CJR, there were no other names listed with the study.

3. Given that the CJR is both an in-print and online publication, there appears to be no apparent bias it would give in the survey. Furthermore, their website shows that they are critical of all day-to-day press - not just those that are web-based.

4. In the New York Times link above, the author gives information about the methodology. For example, CJR "contacted about 3,000 magazines in the summer and fall of 2009, and 665 of them completed the survey." The author then notes that the full results would be released the following Monday and I found the full methodology here:
http://www.cjr.org/resources/magazines_and_their_websites/index.php?ID=4

5. The results are communicated well and are easy to understand. However, the author never defines what "less stringent" means in the findings when she states that "Copy-editing requirements online were less stringent than those in print at 48 percent of the magazines" and "Although 57 percent of the magazines fact-check online submissions in the same way they fact-check print articles, 27 percent used a less-stringent process".

6. The two pie graphs in the article are clear and concise, providing good information to the reader that is easy to understand.

Welcome

Kalamazoo College students in Economics 206-- Business Statistics-- will use this blog to post assignments throughout the term. I will send an invitation to class members to join this blog. You will probably need a Google Account if you don't already have one.