February 4th 2015
The Media isn’t Message In the professor Stephen Jay Gould’s words, he said that the Mean and Median are total different in statistics. Average number defends the mean, and the median is the central number. Usually, the mean and median of a group of data will convey some important information, such as developing tendency and increasing rate. However, it appears that the truth behind reality is often overstretched using statistics. The author mentioned that the people always lack of impassive objectivity, and just do whatever they want. In some examples, the mean and the media sometimes are used in wrong way. It leads to the data become not creditable. Here Gould used his own experience to show not all mean and medians can make sense. It all began when the author was diagnosed with abdominal mesothelioma way back in 1982. When he Inquired his cancerous condition from the doctor, the latter failed to provide a satisfactory answer because there were no worthy literature materials on this type of cancer. The distribution of variation shows that same characters as the right skewed in statistics. In the right skewed, we used several characters that present the whole graph’s tendency. In addition, the median is larger than mean but less than mode. In the case of Gould, we could get a different conclusion. Perhaps, the absence of adequate literature materials on medical knowledge explains the reason why few people have little understanding on statistics in this area of practice. In the second article by Steve Dunn, the author explores the significance of statistics in everyday experience. Although statistics have generally been perceived as cold, People still can get different conclusions from the same group of data. Nonetheless, the author agrees that statistics lack humanity. To begin with, statistics depict our experiences. In other words, statistics create a platform through which invaluable experiences can be shared. Most decision-making processes can be easily made after valid conclusions have been made. It is also possible to utilize statistics in offering vital reassurance and motivation through statistics. We cannot ignore the advantage that brought from the statistics. It is indeed possible to use statistics in the wrong way especially if due caution is not exercised. According to Dunn, the use of statistics may sometimes yield wrong results. Statistics is not an individual data, and it represents a group with a bunch of samples. It used the sample to take the data and use the data to help later-come people to make decision. Every thing has it individuality, so the statistics may get some mistakes in the data. Means and medians are sometimes looked at as impossible realities. Nonetheless, the computation of both of these measures of tendency is completely different and should never be misconstrued. Their interpretations are also different in the sense that they infer unique scenarios First, statistics can be used either in the wrong or right manner. Hence, it is advisable to inquire the validity of any statistical data found in research papers before accepting them. There are several instances when measurements in statistics (such as the mean and median) are applied and interpreted to suit the narrow desire of a small segment of society. Second, valid statistics in empirical studies can be used to make vital decisions because they are usually summarized and already interpreted.