Posted on PR Axis

PR use of statistics on trial – where’s your evidence?

Guest post by Nigel Hawkes. Healthcare reform is controversial, as both the US and the UK have found. In Britain, a chorus of protest has been generated by a Bill to reform the National Health Service. Some of the most powerful interventions have come from the Royal Colleges – highly-esteemed bodies that exist to promote and improve the practice of different medical specialties. I’ve been struck not by the positions taken, which are strongly opposed...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Lies, Damn Lies and Twitter

When used properly, statistics can be very informative. However, some statistics are meaningless, and some are dishonest. Interpreting statistics requires some technical knowledge, and most people do not have the basic training to know how to read statistics and to take them with a grain of salt. Statistics are particularly misleading with regard to the early days of any phenomenon because percentages are distorted by the small base: moving from 1 to 8 readers/users/etc. is an...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

What’s my name – and where’s my number?

In case you missed it, 2007 was a big year for the statisticians – and, in many ways, something of a lost opportunity for us when it comes to making public relations count. I’m not normally a big fan of ‘numbering’ people, but I do believe that ‘public relations’ really needs a universal number of its own. Why? Because then the national and global impact of our profession could be quickly and neatly measured and...