Workshop details
When:
Thursday, June 20
Time:
9 a.m. to noon
Where:
Campus Life Building,
Room 100, NIU,
DeKalb.
Map
Directions
Cost:
$20 for NINA members,
$40 for nonmembers
To register: Call Dana Ditrichs-Kunkel at (815) 753-1564, or e-mail dditrichs@niu.edu.
NINA Home
Newsletters
Board Members
Meeting Minutes
Member Newspapers
Constitution & Bylaws
Contests
Calendar
Job Listings
(via the Northern Star)
Journalism Links
Job
Hunter's Guide
About NINA
Membership Rates
New! Info for
High School Journalists
Math for Journalists
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Numbers
Admit it. You have a problem. And even if you don't, you know someone who does. You've successfully hidden it from friends, family, co-workers. But sooner or later, they'll know.
You are a math dunce.
Images of those story problems - a train leaves Boston going 90 mph, blah blah blah - still make you break into a cold sweat. You hide it well, even in numbers stories, with quotes from experts who, for all you know, could be reciting nuclear launch codes. Still, there are potentially great stories out there that you're afraid to tackle because of all those numbers. You'd be exposed.
You need NINA's June 20 workshop, "Math for Journalists, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Numbers." Our speakers are two journalists who can teach you to confidently read a budget, figure a tax bill and perform even more numerical tasks that might otherwise cause you to long for that water-skiing-squirrel story.
You'll be among friends here. No judgment. No trains leaving Boston. You will find acceptance from other numerically challenged journalists. You'll learn basic concepts that will help you recognize significant stories, know what questions to ask and give big numbers an extra perspective for your readers. Believe it or not, you'll even have fun in the process.
Best of all, you'll approach numbers stories with newfound confidence.
Speakers
Matt Baron
Known to journalism colleagues as "the human calculator," Matt
teaches math principles in understandable and easy-to-remember terms. He
wrote a weekly column called "By the Numbers" that was syndicated
nationally in 1998. He's a regular free-lance writer for Time, Sports Illustrated
for Kids, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune, after having spent eight years
as a reporter for The Courier News in Elgin.
Alex Gary
Alex is the assistant business editor for the Rockford Register Star, where
he covers real estate and development. He's also the paper's resident expert
on understanding municipal budgets. Prior to joining the Register Star in
1997, Alex was assistant sports editor for the Beloit Daily News.
Program
9 a.m. - registration
9:15 - Matt Baron
10:15 - break
10:30 - Alex Gary
11:30 - Q&A
Noon - adjourn