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Bertha HarianBertha Harian

News Reports

Numbing numbers Part 2

Can someone please save me from text? What’s wrong with newspapers these days? Why are they so averse to putting numbers in a chart? Why make the reader wade through text to figure out something? I am referring to two stories that were in ST and BT today.

The first one is on that MasterCard survey on global destinations. ST decided to angle on Singapore’s current status – we are in the top five. Yay! BT decided to angle on expected arrivals – Singapore might be among the top five fastest growing in Asia-Pac. Yay! You can see how cynical I am. Actually, I am just tired of reading numbers. Seems obvious to me a chart on the rankings, arrival numbers, tourists receipts needed. Instead both newspapers went with a boring pictures – tourists on trishaws and the Singapore skyline. What a waste of space!

And that report on Singaporeans being Number 2 worldwide in tablet craze in ST. Yay! No chart again, but it was accompanied by a picture of people in the MRT glued to the phone and three little nuggets of information accompanying it. That was the best picture ST could come up with for page 1….

Guess what saved the story for me. My Paper. It had an interesting chart on what Singaporeans DO in their phones, compared to users in seven other countries. We’re tops when it comes to using the phone to get on the Internet, email, use apps, instant messaging, social networking and watching videos….Yay?

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An ex-journalist who can't get enough of the news after being in the business for 26 years

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