Benefits, Burdens, and Prospects of the American Community Survey Summary of a Workshop (2013) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
4 ACS and the Media
4 ACS and the Media
Pages 57-74
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 57... ...
The media are an important front line in the communication of results of the survey and an important and diverse data user constituency themselves -- ranging from the small media outlets described by other speakers as lacking any capacity for original data analysis to outlets capable of working a new ACS release into a complete package of stories on changes in American life. The workshop presentations in the block dedicated to media perspectives included an important and considerable range of views.
|
From page 58... ...
of standard errors associated with ACS estimates. 4–A FINDING STORIES IN ACS DATA Though she began her remarks by calling herself "probably the least technically savvy" of the speakers, Haya El Nasser took care to note that her newspaper -- USA TODAY -- has a longstanding commitment to working with and presenting census and ACS data, and that she personally has been writing on related issues for almost 16 years.
|
From page 59... ...
In addition to more refined analysis, this initial exploration leads to the next step, which is tapping the very broad pool of sources -- demographers and other social scientists -- who can weigh in on what they are noticing in the data. El Nasser candidly conceded that this early discussion and corroboration of data trends with outside sources might be a technical violation of the ACS embargo policy lamented by Terpstra (Section 3–B)
|
From page 60... ...
. With specific reference to housing, new data releases also commonly have a separate housing story developed by a reporter in USA TODAY 's financial section, typically with insight and analysis work by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
|
From page 61... ...
. the bottom line for them is that it comes from the Census Bureau." This combination of trust in the Census Bureau and confusion over what exactly the ACS means is the reason why media stories commonly use the generic references "census data" or "data from the Census Bureau." El Nasser said that reporters certainly know the precise source of the data in the stories, but find it difficult to win these battles; proper attribution of the ACS as a source begs (in editors' interpretations)
|
From page 62... ...
Noting the recent legislative developments, she commented that she and USA TODAY certainly hope that the ACS remains viable; her own sense is that ACS funding is likely to weather the immediate budgetary storm but that some period of costly and time-consuming work to square the ACS with new expectations is likely to follow. 4–B DATA-BASED INVESTIGATION: IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION IN CALIFORNIA While El Nasser described the general process of generating news stories from ACS data -- and, in particular, stories on a tight first-day-of-release deadline -- Ronald Campbell of The Orange County Register described his own personal experience with a longer-term data-based investigative report.
|
From page 63... ...
This project was a difficult one to take on, for a variety of reasons. The general topic was "wildly controversial" and had been heated for many years, particularly following debates over the state's Proposition 187 in 1994;4 common assertions cast in debates included that immigrant workers in California were predominantly illegal/undocumented, poorly educated, and poorly paid drains on state and local resources.
|
From page 64... ...
Other workarounds that he implemented to facilitate his analysis included working almost exclusively with ACS percentage estimates rather than counts and to focus on larger geographies. To illustrate the point, he described his first attempt to use the 2006–2008 ACS PUMS file to derive the number of immigrant workers in each of the state's 233 PUMAs; the screenshot of the table he displayed was filled with red shading -- his indicator for estimates with relative standard errors greater than 5 percent -- because all 233 estimates failed the test.
|
From page 65... ...
and automobile mechanics. Specifically, the 2006–2008 ACS data suggested that the foreign-born shares of these two job categories were roughly comparable in 1970 and in 2008 (as reflected in the 2006–2008 ACS)
|
From page 66... ...
is making some inroads, it is still a specialty -- and a general fear of numbers still pervades many newsrooms. However, where Terpstra and Plyer emphasized the corresponding need for "interpreters" to make ACS data and findings more usable by the media, Campbell feared that some reporters will continue to try to use the data and yet remain reluctant to really probe the estimates' standard errors and understand the "potential pitfalls." Hence, he ended with a cautionary prediction: that sometime in the next several years, a news organization will have to retract a major story -- based on ACS data -- "because a reporter failed to understand the margin of error that is built into that data." 4–C GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA TO NEWSPAPER AND NEWS WEBSITE READERS Taking the podium immediately after Campbell's prediction, Ford Fessenden (graphics editor, The New York Times)
|
From page 67... ...
Computer-assisted or data-driven reporters have made some inroads in infusing data into the newspapers; Fessenden noted that he was such a computer-assisted reporter before becoming a graphics editor, and that reporters like Campbell, El Nasser, and himself serve as "Billy Beanes5 of the newspaper business" in trying to weave stories from data. The unwillingness to distract from the narrative carries over to the presentation of uncertainty inherent in ACS estimates.
|
From page 68... ...
Instead, Fessenden said, what is incumbent on him and his peers is to study the margins of error and their implications -- "to try to understand it ourselves and then tell people something we believe is true." Extending that point, the other main point that Fessenden said that he wanted to make about data-driven reporting and the increasing role of the ACS concerned "correctible errors." An important role played by data users in news organizations is trying to catch errors (or validate anecdotal findings) before they make their way into print.
|
From page 69... ...
-- or map New York City at the census tract level. Fessenden said that this set of maps was interesting to readers -- giving a picture of household structure in the nation that cannot be obtained from any other source -- but was particularly interesting because it spurred The New York Times staff to probe for explanations for some of the trends evident in the maps.
|
From page 70... ...
Summing up his basic approach to dealing with the uncertainty inherent in ACS estimates -- as he put it more colorfully in his slides, "how we learned to stop worrying about sampling error and embrace the ACS" -- Fessenden said the strategy is to try to emphasize trends. They try to keep the level of geographic resolution reasonable -- small-area units in which differences in standard errors are not incredibly volatile.
|
From page 71... ...
Data like the ACS can support the reporting, and vice versa; Fessenden said that he and the The New York Times value the ACS because "there is so much more good in there than there is danger or negativity that we want it in the paper." 4–D DISCUSSION Much of the closing discussion session for the first day of the workshop involved El Nasser and Fessenden being asked for additional comment on the presentation of margins of error.11 Terri Ann Lowenthal (see Section 7–D) asked the presenters to comment on Campbell's assertion that the ACS promises more than it delivers with respect to the reliability of tract-level data -- whether the journalists believe that the increased timeliness of ACS data (not being up to 10 10 The marathon graphic is located at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/05/ nyregion/the-evolving-neighborhoods-along-the-marathon.html.
|
From page 72... ...
She conceded that USA TODAY might not push down to the neighborhood level as much as The New York Times or a local newspaper like The Orange County Register, but the ACS's capacity for analysis by metropolitan area and county is "quite amazing." She said that she does not necessarily agree with the argument that the ACS promised more than it delivers because "I think we always knew what the problems would be; my expectations were not that much greater." Clearly one could wish for more and more precision, but the current ACS seems to be a reasonable compromise. Fessenden agreed with El Nasser's points, particularly the assertion that the ACS "is news." More than that, "it is the news business; it is what we like." Recalling the earlier question from a Census Bureau staffer on the practical difference that might come from ACS releases in June rather than September (Section 2–F)
|
From page 73... ...
said that he wanted to add to this discussion his view on the ACS products' presentation of margins of error in cases where there are very small numbers or proportions for a particular group or area. In those instances, the Census Bureau's approach has been to publish margins of error that allow for negative counts or proportions.
|
From page 74... ...
closed the day's discussion by agreeing with Beveridge that products making fuller use of modeling is a good direction -- and added that, as the son of a newspaper editor, he found the session on media perspectives fascinating and that it is the start of a conversation on the distinction between simply "producing facts" relative to "providing useful evidence" for people.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.