united nations economic commission for europe statistical division building relations with the media...

United Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical DivisionUnited Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical Division

Building Relations with the Media With examples from Statistics Slovenia

and Statistics Finland

Training Workshop on Disseminating MDG Indicators and Statistical Information

Astana, Kazakhstan, 23-25 November 2009

Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECECourtesy to Jussi Melkas, Statistics Finland

24.11.2009 Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide 2

Examples of well working media relations Press releases

• Statistics Slovenia Media relations approach, follow-up of media

relations and Publication Calendar• Statistics Finland

Naturally there are others• Basic Publication Calendar – almost in all

participating NSIs• Press releases

Statistics Canada, ABS, all Scandinavian NSIs


Why Statistics Slovenia deserves to be mentioned? Well structured press releases

• Headline• Ingress/Introduction• Basic text• Graphs and visual presentations• Links to additional information• Possibility to sign up to receive press releases

by e-mail by sphere of interest – good categorization of the supply


Why Statistics Slovenia deserves to be mentioned?

They follow the golden KISS rule

Keep

ItShort and

Simple


Why Statistics Finland deserves to be mentioned? Relaxed general attitude built on mutual trust

with the Media They have developed the Publication Calendar

to be the backbone of their main and very modern publication activities in a very systematic way with an extensive use of XML

This dates back to a long tradition – Publication Calendars have been in use already since the 1980’ies

The present practices introduce the electronic era in real terms


Finnish stereotype of a statistician

Produces figures on something that is not important

Too many theoretical concepts and indexes, out of touch with reality

Statistics is a special brand of history that has nothing relevant to say about the present

Says nothing or, if does, denies it in the next sentence


Finnish stereotype of a journalist

Short memory and always in a hurry

Moving in crowds, only one thing at a time seems to be interesting

Bad news is good news

No methodological knowledge


Instead of stereotypes...

We should understand that statistics and journalism are two useful institutions/professions which collect and process information on society and different phenomena

Statistics and journalism have different kind of theoretical foundations and culture, of which neither is false or true

Both are useful and inevitable parts of society

We should strive for co-operation and possibly synthesis


Two Cultures

STATISTICAL OFFICE Systematic

Condensed info Standardising

Mathematics Indexes, Indicators

Descriptive Conservative, Time

series oriented

MEDIA Intuitive Condensed (not as

much) Free-form Humanities Typical cases Searching for answers Oriented towards change,

News and scoop oriented


The Statistical Agency needs good publicity... for same reasons as any organisation:

• in order to guarantee fiscal resources • in order to get good employees • in order to get customers

for some reasons of its own:• in order to get good data • in order to be trusted - statistics has to be trusted • in order to serve the public discussion with the data

it can provide


Journalism needs good statistics… because they give a picture of short term

fluctuations in society because they offer the public facts and

information for analysing social problems and structure of society

because they validate or do not validate single observations, which journalists make

because they are based on concepts and classifications which help to analyse society


What is the outcome/experience in Statistics Finland?

More than 50 experts are giving statements on Statistics Finland’s statistics to the media, press and TV

About 700 statistical releases and 70 press releases are published annually, and all get a fairly good publicity

3 000 - 4 000 special news stories published annually in the 35 largest newspapers • Less than 1 % of the special news stories included

criticism: politically sensitive questions (unemployment, regional development), obvious errors


What is the outcome/experience in Statistics Finland? (Continued)

A survey among the Finnish journalists tell that Statistics Finland is evaluated as one of the best sources of information for them

Continuous development of customer contacts to different parts of the media


Familiarity of Statistics Finland 1975–2007

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1975 1978 1983 1988 1992 1994 1996 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007

% of respondents are familiar with Statistics Finland

TNS Gallup Ltd & Taloustutkimus Ltd


Reliability of Statistics Finland’s statistics

Data unreliable7%

Don't know8%

Data reliable85%


Statistics Finland's usefulness

Needless institution2%

Useful for everybody71%

Only useful for some21%

Don't know6%


Basic principles of communicating about statistics at Statistics Finland – or anywhere...

Reliability Timeliness Impartiality Clarity Objectivity Confidentiality Relevance


Proactive measures in media relations at Statistics Finland Organise visits and education

• Focus on the most important groups television, major newspapers, business periodicals economic, science reporters

• Present data sources and service possibilities, tell how to read statistics, discuss also methodological difficulties

• Be informal Give special service to every journalist in need of

it Build friendships but do not favour any partner


The effects of media operations are monitored Systematic follow-up of media reactions

• Thematic classification• Attitude classification

Make statistics on the feedback and analyse what should be done better in the future

Pick out stories needing immediate reaction Compile a collection of interesting stories and

distribute them in your office


Rules of reaction to media at Statistics Finland

Be active Don’t be aggressive Be honest, admit you faults Avoid taking a stand on social problems You can react both in public and in

private


A word of warning to statisticians: Everything you say

can be used as a story

The task of a journalist is to make a good story - nothing more


Advice for Finnish journalists making a story on statistics Beware:

• Easy conclusions are seldom right conclusions• If nobody hasn’t noticed your finding before, there is

probably something wrong in it• Be ready to throw away your hypothesis / prejudice

Don’t be afraid:• Be critical on truths, which are said to base on

statistical reasoning• Use your imagination when reading statistics


Advice for Finnish journalists making a story on statistics (continued)

Ask first

The statistician surely knows the frequently made errors (FME) in reading statistics


The Publication System of Statistics Finland – main features(1)

Number of statistical releases annually• About 700 in Finnish and Swedish• 330 in English … growing

The structure of statistical releases has been carefully defined • To meet the demands of multichannel

distribution All statistical releases are archived

• Their URL address will remain unchanged


The Publication System of Statistics Finland – main features(2)

Since spring 2007 the Publication System is XML based

A single three-language XML original file can be used to automatically publish• HTML pages in Finnish, English and Swedish (a total

of about 90 HTML files), • compile a PDF publication in Finnish and English,• compile a PDF file in Finnish for printing and • distribute the publication via e-mail and RSS in

Finnish, English and Swedish


Earlier, before the year 2007

In the old publishing process, the data contained in a single set of statistics was published

• 1) as electronic statistical release in the online service; if required, annexed tables and figures and a longer article would also be published

• 2) as a printed publication and • 3) as database tables in the table database.

All three publishing processes were separate and employed different tools in the production of tables and the publishing of data

Data in different distribution channels were not coordinated and they did not form a consistent whole


A qualitatively new publication process – Managing the whole The new publishing system combines the

content of statistical releases published in the online service (and the table and figure annexes supplementing them) and the content of earlier printed publications

This revision was not merely a question of routine copying of earlier data into new tools, but a complete redesigning of the publishing system as a whole


One XML-original --> several content combinations to different dissemination channels in three languages

Publication original (XML-file )

Heading

Stat. release (FIN, SWE,

ENG)

Caption text

Short text section

Contact persons

Annexed images

Quality description

Annexed tables

Description of variables

Web site

Printed publication

PDFFi ISSN 1a, ISBN 1a

Sw ISSN 1b, ISBN 1bEn ISSN 1c, ISBN 1c

PDFFi ISSN 2a, ISBN 2a

Sw ISSN 2b, ISBN 2bEn ISSN 2c, ISBN 2c

RSS

HTML

Larger text section

E-mail


Technicalities

Data Architecture of the new publication system• COmmon Structure of Statistical Information,

COSSI• Available at http://www.stat.fi/cossi

The publishing tool• Arbortext XML Editor


More detailed information

Mr Markku Huttunen’s presentation at the International Marketing and Output Database Conference, 1-5 September 2008

http://imaodbc.stat.fi/media//presentations/huttunen_.pdf

Markku Huttunen is Head of the web services division of Statistics Finland


Helpful materials by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Communicating with the

Media – A Guide for Statistical OrganisationsGeneva 2004http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/media/guide/

Making Data Meaningful, Part 1 – a Guide to Writing Stories about numbersGeneva 2006http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/writing/


Helpful materials by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Making Data Meaningful,

Part 2 – a Guide to Presenting StatisticsGeneva 2009http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/writing/

Making Data Meaningful• Part 1 and• Part 2 are both available in• English and• Russian

at the web site, mentioned above


Communicating with Media – Main content

Principles, objectives and management issues in data dissemination

Organisational aspects• Media services• Release calendars• Dissemination strategy• Dealing with negative

press coverage• Measuring the impact

Methods and tools Renewed edition in 2010


Communicating with Media – Main content (Continued)

Impact of the internet on information dissemination

• Who is the customer?• What is the product?• Making a good website• Measuring web performance &

collecting customer feedback• Organisational issues

Learning in each others classrooms

• What statisticians should learn• What media people should learn

Handling a media crisis


Making Data Meaningful, Part 1 – Main content

What is a statistical story? Why tell a story? Things to take into

consideration when writing a story on statistics

How to write a story Writing about data: Make

numbers “stick” Evaluating the impact Applying good writing techniques Examples of well written

statistical stories Further reading recommendations


Making Data Meaningful, Part 2 – Main content


Conclusion

You cannot learn to swim if you don’t go into the water!

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