The Hindu Business Line : Data crazy, not analysis savvy

The world, especially India, is caught in the cricket thrall though the Indian team has crashed out of the World Cup. Everyone has an opinion on the overall outcome, as also on every match. But how many of these opinions follow the crowd; after all, most of us try to align our opinion to the majority view.

As much as they give information, media also create opinions. And these days, media are increasingly resorting to participative journalism and public opinion; citizen journalists and opinion poll surveys are examples.

Many of the opinion polls give results in percentages. In many cases the verdict is proclaimed as "India says... " For instance, "90 per cent of India says cricket is better than football" or "70 per cent of India says Tendulkar is better than Ganguly."

Yet what price these percentages? Percentages can be calculated on any basis. Seventy people out of 100 is 70 per cent. Twenty out of 50 is 40 per cent, and so on. In the earlier examples, if only 100 people voiced their opinion, 90 would have answered yes to the first question and 70 to the second question. But does this really represent what India feels? In a country of 100 crore people, is 100 (in the extreme case) or even a couple of thousands a representative sample? And if even one person changes his opinion based on the influence of such data, it would be a gross injustice.

Should the media not be more responsible and give out also the number of responses along with the percentages to convey information correctly?

India is data crazy but not analysis savvy. Shouldn't the more responsible people analyse data for the less aware? Elsewhere, beyond cricket, such opinion polls can have a serious impact.

So who do you feel will win the World Cup? Be unbiased by what you see: Analyse. Do not get influenced by data, because the authenticity of the percentage data is anyway perhaps 70 per cent suspect.

(The author is a Kochi-based management consultant.)