An indicator for statistical literacy based on national newspaper archives

Abstract

This paper develops and reports on a composite indicator for statistical literacy as part of the Busan Action Plan for Statistics (BAPS) logical framework as agreed in the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. The Plan’s first objective is to “fully integrate statistics into decision-making”. Statistical literacy is a prerequisite to effectively use statistics to inform decisions for planning, analysis, monitoring, and evaluation, thus increasing transparency and accountability. The statistical literacy indicator measures the use of and critical engagement with statistics in national newspapers. The target population are journalists and newspaper readers. This excludes the illiterate population and those without access to print or online media. Articles are from RSS feeds of national newspapers, primarily based on -- but not limited to -- the global news aggregator Google News.