3 posts tagged

statistics

Statistics: biased unreliable Media

In the last article, I have shown reliable sources based on my experience and more or less reliable statistics. Here I post the list of unreliable media with more than 1 Million readers. I don’t add anonymous sources – they are unreliable. The state-owned political media are also treated as unreliable.

Media Name County Reliability Bias Fake example Disclosure
The Sun UK Low Strong right example mediabiasfactcheck

Note, I judge the media myself, with the help of Google and paid statistics, Given by the Vienna University of Economics. I am not affiliated with any source and do everything to help my readers.

I am centrist, and I trust neither lefts nor rights. I treat the neutral equally distributed to the left and right Information.

Where to check news

check an unknown website on similarweb.com. Similarweb shows everything about somewhat popular websites; try the following sources:
Allsides.com

2022   statistics

Statistics: What media to trust?

Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, most media have become opinionated and taken one of the two sides. Some media judged one of the sides without having enough proof, which does not correspond to the presumption of innocence. Conflict-participating countries enforced censorship. Posting videos with military groups is illegal. Whom then to believe?

I found reliable sources based on historical reliability and bias – the declination to the left or right party. The information is based on statistics:

Reuters

Reuters is a London-based news agency with 2500 employees founded in 1851 (170 years ago). “Reuters Connect” has a partnership with 17 news agencies, still including TASS (Russian state-owned media). Reuters has a reputation as the neutral (bias of -1.83 to the left side, for example, NBC News, PBS, and CNN have a bias from -5 to -8) and highly reliable (48 out of 64 points) source. Reuters is free to use.

The company adfontesmedia made a report about Reuters, where Reuters was treated as a reliable but a middle-biased source.

Popular western sources, based on parameters form Adfontesmedia.

Media name Country Reliability < 64 Bias Party
Retuers UK 48 -1.83 Left
AP News US 48.82 -1.89 Left
PBS US 48.36 -4.76 Left
Washington Post US 42.87 -8.44 Left
Wall street journal US 45.35 5.17 Right
CNN US 42.89 -8.61 Left
Algazeera Qatar 45.68 -4.39 Left

The most reliable sources, based on statistics, appeared to be on the left party, The most unbiased are Reuters and AP news.

If you want to find another reliable resource, use Adfontesmedia Interactive Media Bias Chart®, that compares 1662 sources based on the bias and reliability score.
Note, the Adfontesmedia was criticized by the Association of College and Research Libraries and others, meaning that the statistics can also be biased.

The live map of events

liveuamap.com is a map of events developed by Ukrainian software engineers from Dnipro Rodion Rozhkovskyi and Oleksandr Bilchenko. Although Ukrainians manage the website, it is a trustworthy resource with constant and fast updates. I have been using the website daily since the 24th of February. Unfortunately, liveuamap.com mentions all Russian news as propaganda and relies mainly on western media.

Telegram

Telegram is the leading news platform nowadays. The media can post violent content, videos from different angles, and freedom to write anything without censorship. Such freedom attracts young people and citizens of conflict states. Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian telegram channels have millions of subscribers each.

But most of the channels are anonymous. That means – no one has a responsibility for the words said. Enormous influence and impunity (being unpunished) make the owners extremely powerful. For example, no one knows who owns Ukrainian channels, such as “Real Kyiv” or “F***ing Kiyv,” and channels with other cities in the title. These channels spread nationalistic and extremist information. These channels want Ukrainians to hate ethnic Russians and also Russian citizens. Such sources escalate the war.

Ukrainians are subscribed to tens of such channels. Ukrainians spend their free time reading the news. The majority of the channels bring the same information, and some provide opinions. Opinions are scary – a person can claim any opinion and forecast anything. In stressed situations, people believe in any lie. The problem is if the media keep posting lies for a long time, then everyone believes in a lie. Such lies happen on Russian TV channels – that is why this is the least reliable source. People who regularly listen to other people’s opinions stop thinking, and they rely on others. People lose control over themselves.

Help with the mind

Read facts, Reduce opinions. People want to keep updated, moreover if the theme concerns them. People read news agencies, youtube bloggers, and telegram channels. The media also shares opinions and experts’ thoughts. Every opinion is biased and based on experience.

The same fact or an event is commented on by thousands of influential experts. Reliable experts have own view on a situation – they have a plan of action. Reliable experts are well educated and they project a situation that they have before in the future and current events. Listening to 2-3 experts, who have different strategies may help to educate yourself. Listening to tens of experts weekly makes a person anxious and costs time.

For example, I am interested in economics and people’s lives. I chose 4 channels, where I consume information (in Russian): @market_tweets posts economic, stock market facts, graphs, and governors’ quotes. @Varlamov posts videos about people’s lives and documentaries about different themes. Dengi_ne_spyat (Tinkoff bank media) posts 2 videos about the stock market weekly – aggressive and conservative investors with 20-year knowledge tell about stock markets based on news, data, speakers, and experience. Reuters posts trustworthy articles.

I took the graph idea from the psychology agency Zigmund.online, and its telegram channel.

If a person subscribes to tens of channels, he will be lost in opinions. He will spend all his free and working time keeping updated. I was in such a situation at the beginning of a conflict.

In the end, a person burns out. A person becomes angry or scared, and he can make hasty (rash, unthoughtful) decisions.

If the event is not escalating, you lose interest in it. For example, if ten soldiers were killed last week, you would be astonished and expect more. If today, hundred of the soldiers were killed, you would be even more curious to know what happened. But if next week there will be 5-10 deaths, you will lose interest in this event.

News agencies want you always to be astonished – they increase the importance of each following event. Remember how news agencies talked about killing a couple of civilians, Mariupol, Chornobyl, exploding of a hospital, theater, Bucha, train station, ship sunk – each event was seen as a bigger and bigger event. But no one cares nowadays about the tank explosions and deaths of tens of civilians. News agencies will do whatever they can to escalate the conflict; otherwise, people forget about the event.

News agencies are real winners in this conflict. They have got huge influence: new readers, paid subscribers, more time spent on a website. News agencies became rich due to advertisements and paid subscriptions. They don’t want you to leave but keep you updated for the long term.

Fake News

My team from the Vienna University of Business and Economics and I made a presentation and a paper about fake news – types of fake news, history, how to spot and prevent spreading fake news.

2022   english   statistics

Russia and Ukraine: Statistics and Media

I collected surveys and statistics from Statista. If you want to learn more, purchase a report about the Russia-Ukraine conflict or be a student to download for free. Based on samples of 1000-3000 respondents.

Positive thoughts about Russia, and GDP per capita in Russia

Based on IMF Data and KIIS

Before the Crimea events in 2014, Ukrainians were friendly to the Russian nation. 4 years after the Crimea event, Ukrainians started to increase relationships with Russia.

Correlation between Russian GDP and feelings about Russia

Thinking About Russia Coefficient Correlation with GDP
Very/Mostly Positive 85% Very High positive correlation
Very/Mostly Negative -83% Very High negative correlation
Hard to say -75% High Negative correlation

We see a strong relationship between the GDP of Russia and the Attitude of Ukrainians to Russians.

Attitudes of respondents separately to the leadership and separately to the population of another state

How do Ukrainians think about Russians in October 2021?

The absolute majority of Ukrainians think good about Russians.

If a referendum on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU) was held next Sunday, how would you vote?

Based on a sample, Ukrainians want to be a part of the EU.

2022   english   statistics