1. 11/12/12 PlanningUrbanORegional: Why such vast gap exists in statistical interpretation of a single fact?
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Statistics considers raw data while people tend to value associated
UrbanORegional has 4,904 Followers
sentiments.
If you are going for a primary survey with a
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standard template of closed ended
questionnaires or some kind of table to be
filled with numbers you might not be doing real
justice to the survey. You might have a allisonelfxoxo E liatcoachdaddy LA N YP O MM arjie_G irl deborahy ela
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reasonable amount of data at end of the day to
conclude your assignment or research, but you
won’t be able to do the realistic assessment of You can Follow me on Twitter
the situation. You might fulfill the acceptable Follow @UrbanORegional
standards of data gathering; you might even
publish the result and can even bag an award
or two, but if the very people who got surveyed are not being able to
relate to the statistical conclusion, or if they do not validate it, all the
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efforts of data collection and analysis goes to vain.
You will be surprised to realize that still at many instances the situation
shown of paper and the actual situation experienced by the population is
drastically different, though data for situation analysis was gathered
from the same population or community. Then why this vast gap of
interpreted and locally experienced situation exists? Why this constant
apparent difference of opinion between government’s point of view and
what media and NGO’s showcase about the city, region or community
etc. There are few possible reasons, first is that statistics is very flexible
domain, though outcome seems very impactful there is enough scope to
mould or influence the direction of outcome, still staying within legally of
intellectually acceptable limit. The kind of data you select to gather,
variety of assumptions you take into consideration, mode and tool of
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2. 11/12/12 PlanningUrbanORegional: Why such vast gap exists in statistical interpretation of a single fact?
statistical analysis you choose to go with, time span considered for
analysis, selection and heterogeneity of sample itself, there are so many
such variables that one can interpret and influence the outcome in any
possible direction depending on the purpose or intention. Larger the data
set, greater the flexibility of interpretation.
Government being a powerful entity with ample manpower and resources
has generally upper hand when it comes to data collection and
interpretation and usually less probability of misrepresentation, but
again it depends on what they want to prove or convey. Media and NGO
who generally lack enough data due to manpower constraint to prove a
fact applicable to a larger domain generally tend to rely on emotional
values attached to the subject or region and sentiments of population or
communities to prove their point. They generally choose small set of
data though having high perceived or emotional value and exploit the
associated sentiments. On one hand there is ample scope of playing with
data and on the other hand equally or more or less scope to play with
people’s emotions and sentiments but ultimately both leads to distortion
of fact. And this show of constant blame and justification goes on and
on. Actual fact seems to lose the significance while this argument is on,
later no one really bothers to reach to the actual fact.
Unless statistics as a knowledge stream would device a method and
make it a mandate to consider or quantify and incorporate the emotional
and sentimental values attached to the subject of research and
aspirations of communities to the extent possible along with some kind
of post analytic appraisal and indigenous validation method, data
representation would remain deceptive and at the mercy of decision
making individuals or groups. Meanwhile we as a layman can mitigate AUTHOR
this doubt of data misrepresentation by keeping a questioning, skeptical Anoop Jha
or neutral attitude towards impactful data being presented day to day Delhi, India
from both government end as well as media and social welfare View my complete
representative’s end, without being panicked, without arriving at profile
immediate conclusion, cross verifying the fact from different sources,
applying our own head and intuition, knowing and reminding them that Total Pageviews
their job is to inform us not to instigate or incite us. You are capable
enough to judge yourself; all you need is a fair amount of fair data and
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statistics or simply a fair representation.
By : Anoop Jha
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