The Professor Who Taught Reporters to Count Phil Meyer and the Precision Journalism Framework That Brought Social Science to the Newsroom
How a Kansas farm boy with a paper route became the godfather of data journalism, and why his 1973 book still matters for anyone who reads or writes the news.
Phil Meyer fundamentally reshaped modern journalism by pioneering the application of social science methods and statistical analysis to news reporting. His work, known as Precision Journalism, moved newsrooms away from anecdotal evidence and toward data-driven storytelling. This approach, born from a 1967 experiment using computer databases, continues to influence how journalists investigate and present information today. He had been sent by Knight Newspapers to help the exhausted staff at the Detroit Free Press...
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