Re:Facebook fined £50.5m for breaching order in Giphy takeov...
by woliveirajr on Wednesday October 20, 2021 @09:00AM
(#28930117)
Remembers me this extension: https://dictionaryofnumbers.com/ (for Chrome, don't know about other browsers).
Not sure it would have give the correct context (i.e., Facebook value) but would give swome context.
Re:Facebook fined £50.5m for breaching order in Giphy takeov...
by Throwawayaerlei on Wednesday October 20, 2021 @05:28PM
(#28936910)
Media outlets have a severe allergy to placing numbers in context, no matter who begs them to.
Maybe they're lazy?
And no matter how "well-educated" their audiences are, a very large fraction of them and their audiences are innumerate, it's hard to get across the message you desire.
Re:Facebook fined £50.5m for breaching order in Giphy takeov...
by bryanrasmussen on Wednesday October 20, 2021 @10:28AM
(#28931035)
> They just want the number to look big.
yes but on the other hand if they combined it with the hours of revenue you would have a big number that looks impressive being dwarfed by the realization of how big and scary that means Facebook is.
> For decades I have harangued reporters about writing down really big numbers, most often budget numbers, without providing any context that would make them meaningful for their audience. Even though leading news outlets, like the New York Times (NYT), Washington Post (WaPo), and National Public Radio (NPR), have well-educated audiences, most readers/listeners have no idea what $250 billion, or some other huge sum, over the next decade means. (Often the time period over which money will be spent is not even specified in a piece – it does matter.)
https://cepr.net/the-new-york-times-big-deficit-numbers/
The Times Is Working on Ways to Make Numbers-Based Stories Clearer for Readers By Margaret Sullivan - October 18, 2013 2:46 pm
https://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/the-times-...