Archive
Blog 7: Suicide is 2nd most common death for Americans between 15 & 34.
Suicide is the 2nd-most common cause of death for Americans between 15 & 34. More: http://t.co/pBtlaTZxvO pic.twitter.com/3gkYu5POyb
— The Upshot (@UpshotNYT) October 8, 2015
1. I chose this research because suicide is related to mental health which is what our topic for this blog post. Basically the main point of this research is to point out that more americans die from gun suicide than gun homicide which is very interesting. You hear about many homicides on a daily basis but you never really hear about suicides being reported since that is a more personal matter. Its just kind of surprising that there are even more suicides happening than all of the homicides we hear about. They mention that suicide is more stigmatized than homicide, but less publicly discussed.
2. This research was conducted by The Upshot which is the research outlet of the The New York Times. They got the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed it and organized it into different infographics.
3. I am curious of how the numbers would change if you included all methods of suicide and homicide and then compared the two, and if suicide would still be in the lead.
Blog 6: Missouri leads nation in Toddler Shootings
Washington Post finds at least 43 instances of shootings by toddlers this year, most of them toddler shooting self http://t.co/kOUBvjO4MO
— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner) October 14, 2015
1. I chose this research because Missouri was the leading state in toddler shootings in the United States. To clear up any confusion, a toddler shooting is when a toddler finds a gun in their house (could belong to their parents, or anyone who left it laying around) and then hurts themselves or someone else. Missouri had 5 of these incidents in the last 10 months, while 25+ states had 0 incidents in the last 10 months.
2. This research was done by The Washington Post. They recorded the incidents that were reported by the media from each state where a toddler has gotten ahold of a gun and hurt someone or their self. These numbers do not include incidents where toddlers were shot by adults.
3. The article mentioned gun laws but I would have found it interesting if they would have looked more into the correlation between gun laws in Missouri and the number of toddler shootings. Or if they would have compared the number of toddler shootings to teenage shootings or middle childhood shootings.
Blog #5- Universities & Low-income students
Which top colleges are doing the most for low-income students? @upshotnyt Article: http://t.co/26QIsozFqS #HigherEd pic.twitter.com/IfIqACu9sB
— InsideTrack (@InsideTrack) September 25, 2015
- The New York Times conducted research based on the share of students who receive Pell Grants, which are normally for students who’s family income is less than $70,000 per year, the graduation rate of those students, and the price that the university charges overall, and the resources that are available to a low income student. All of this data was used to make an index ranking nearly 200 schools from best to worst. I chose this specific piece of research because it has a complex infographic that the class could examine and also it is university related.
2. The data was collected by The Upshot, which is a research outlet of The New York Times. The research was conducted by using secondary data to rank schools from best to worst when it comes to the success and resources of lower income students.
3. The article mentioned that this year they were including those students who graduated in 5 years. Since they mentioned that, it would have been nice to see a chart that compared last years rankings to this years. Also, is this conducted every single year? or was last year the first year. If they do it every year I think it would be nice to see the changes in the rankings over time. I found in interesting that the top 5 schools were all in California. I wonder if this is coincidental or if further research has been done on this?
Blog #4: Coverage Error In Internet Surveys
NEW REPORT: Who Web-Only Surveys Miss and How That Affects Results http://t.co/3PwRE0JHFg pic.twitter.com/43zd9tyRTm
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) September 23, 2015
- This research is about the downfalls to collecting data for research purposes online. I thought this was interesting and related to the class because it is something we could all kind of take into consideration for the research we are doing within our groups. Even though doing surveys online is cheaper and easier to access, they are missing certain groups of people. 65% of respondents through mail are 65 years or older, and only 24% of respondents on the web are 65 years or older. This can lead to different biases that we may need to make note of whenever we are doing research.
- The data came from Pew Research Center. They were conducting a panel and invited over 10,000 people some were Internet users and some did not even have an email address. They received a monetary incentive for participating as well. They were interviewed through different mediums such as phone, in person, over the web.
- I am just curious how common mail surveys are anymore? I feel like it mostly compared mail to web, but it may make more sense to compare phone and web. Although I think the results would be similar.
Blog Post #3: Tuck Effect
Know what men who are 8% more likely to report dating often have in common? The secret may surprise you. #TuckEffect https://t.co/u1jR2o3BNp
— Fruit of the Loom (@FruitOfTheLoom) September 24, 2015
- This research study is about the positive effects men experience in their lives because they tuck in their shirts rather than leave them un-tucked. For examples, “tuckers” are 8% more likely to date often. I chose this because it is light hearted and humorous. It also has a lot of great info graphics.
- This research was funded and carried out by Fruit of the Loom. They asked 1000 men about their personal lives (happiness relationships, optimism, social status and income). They came to the conclusion that men who tuck in their shirts come out on top of those who do not.
- I think its important to make note that Fruit of the Loom is a large company and this is more of a marketing platform for them to sell more shirts rather than they were genuinely curious about the topic and their research questions. Also, how did they obtain this data? (Interview, survey, etc.) All that was said was that 1000 men “revealed” their personal information. I wonder how it was actually revealed.
Negative News
Research shows how a few minutes of negative news can ruin your whole day http://t.co/sldtV0cIDb pic.twitter.com/PmyQTpzsX7
— Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz) September 14, 2015
- This tweet and article are about how watching depressing news stories can negatively impact your day. I chose this research because I felt it was communication related as well as interesting.
- In this study they had 110 participants who were blindly placed into one of two categories, negative and positive news stories. One group watched 3 minutes of negative news stories before 10am and the other watched 3 minutes of news having to do with successful problem solving and resilience. 6 hours later, while the participants were at work or wherever, they were emailed a survey asking questions about their mood and current level of stress. They also studied how the negative news impacted work performance and what happened when negative news stories were played on TV’s at the gym.
- How were the 110 participants selected? What kind of professions were surveyed? Obviously if they have access to a computer to check their email 6 hours after this study while they are at work, they are working some sort of desk job. If this is the case, maybe that could be a reason why they are unhappy at work, because often times desk jobs are more mundane.
Blog #1: Cell Phone Usage
82% of adults believe phone use in social gatherings hurt the conversation: 33% say it helps http://t.co/iHszIMZh0T pic.twitter.com/W1tsvkqKDM
— PewResearch Internet (@pewinternet) August 29, 2015
1. This research is about how often we use our phones in social gatherings. I chose this tweet because it is something that probably all of us are guilty of doing. The article goes on to explain that cell phone usage at social gatherings can really hurt our conversations, which should come to no surprise.
2. This research was done by Pew Research Center. They surveyed different races and ages and asked them questions about their personal cell phone usage at their most recent social events.
3. A few of the questions they asked seemed to be pretty open ended (ex. describe how you used your cell phone at a recent gathering) so how they got so many concrete statistics is questionable. Also, in a FEW of the statistics age was not mentioned. I think for this particular topic age is very important because obviously the younger generations are more likely to be on their smart phones. I think age should have been a much larger factor in a few of these statistics.
Missouri Communication 