# ✅ Checkpoint: Media and Statistical Literacy

By Better Wise



## Quiz

1. A post says a new rule 'will shrink your take-home pay.' You trace it back and find the rule text only changes one deduction for one category of worker. What is the best description of what happened along the chain from primary source to post?
   - The rule text itself is unreliable, so the post is the better source.
   - Each hop was lossy: the report generalized, and the post added 'everyone' and dropped the effective date.
   - Nothing was lost, because the post linked to a reputable outlet.
   - The post invented a fact that appears nowhere in the rule text.
2. A headline says a study 'proves' that something causes higher prices. The paper itself is a preprint. Which check matters most for judging the headline's verb?
   - Whether the headline was shared widely enough to be credible.
   - Whether the study was posted before peer review, which makes it worthless.
   - Whether the outlet that ran the headline is well known.
   - Whether the paper claims causation or only association, plus who funded it and how large the sample was.
3. A local page posts 'Downtown theft up 40% since 2020.' The police table shows 100 thefts in 2019, 50 in 2020, and 70 in 2023. Why is 2020 a poor baseline?
   - The 40% figure is arithmetically wrong.
   - Raw counts are always more reliable than percentages.
   - The table covers too many years to be useful.
   - Activity that year was unusually low, so any later recovery looks dramatic.
4. A chart shows a budget rising from 100 to 104 million, but the vertical axis runs from 98 to 106, so the second bar looks several times taller. What is the correct reading?
   - The truncated axis removed almost all the distance between the bars, so an ordinary 4% change fills the frame.
   - The chart is fine because the axis is labelled.
   - Any chart that does not start at zero is fraud and can be dismissed.
   - The budget really grew several times over, because that is what the bars show.
5. A health story says a drug 'doubles the risk' of a rare side effect. The study shows the rate going from 1 in 10,000 to 2 in 10,000. Which statement is accurate?
   - The two figures contradict each other, so the study must be unreliable.
   - The absolute risk doubled, so the danger to any one person is large.
   - The relative risk doubled (+100%), but the absolute risk rose by only 1 extra case per 10,000 people.
   - The relative risk rose by 2 percentage points.
6. A post says 'water bills up 12%.' The utility's own rate notice shows the 12% is the total across three years, phased at about 4% a year. Which verdict fits the lesson's routine?
   - Unverified: no source could be found.
   - Manipulated: the number was invented.
   - Confirmed number, misleading framing: share it with the phase-in stated.
   - Confirmed: the post can be shared exactly as written.
7. Leaving the page you are on to see what other independent sources say about a claim, instead of scrutinising the original page harder, is called reading ____.
8. Going from 4% to 6% is a rise of 2 ____ (the unit for the difference between two percentages), even though it is a 50% relative increase.
9. Run the five-minute verification routine on a suspicious claim you have seen recently (or invent one for practice). Describe each step you took and the verdict you reached.
10. Take one headline with a number in it and separate the fact from the frame. Explain what the number actually says, what frame the headline puts around it, and what evidence would change your mind.


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## Contents

Part of [🏛️ Civic Literacy and Media Awareness](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness.md)

- **🏛️ How Economies and Institutions Work**
  - [🏗️ Who Does What: Governments, Markets, and Institutions](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/governments-markets-institutions-who-does-what.md)
  - [📈 Inflation and Interest Rates in Everyday Life](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/inflation-and-interest-rates-in-everyday-life.md) (sign-in required)
  - [🧾 Taxes and Public Spending: Who Pays, Who Benefits](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/taxes-and-public-spending-who-pays-who-benefits.md)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: Economics and Institutions](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/checkpoint-economics-and-institutions.md)
- **🔍 Reading News and Numbers Critically**
  - [📰 Sourcing and Framing: Who Made the Claim, and Why](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/sourcing-and-framing-who-made-the-claim-and-why.md)
  - [📊 Spotting Statistical Manipulation: Baselines, Charts, and Risk](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/spotting-statistical-manipulation-baselines-charts-risk.md)
  - [🧪 Misinformation Patterns and a 5-Minute Verification Routine](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/misinformation-patterns-and-verification-routine.md)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: Media and Statistical Literacy](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/checkpoint-media-and-statistical-literacy.md) — this lesson
- **⚖️ Forming Balanced, Evidence-Based Views**
  - [🧩 Separating Evidence from Values in a Policy Debate](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/separating-evidence-from-values-in-policy-debate.md)
  - [🛡️ Steelmanning and Stress-Testing Your Own View](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/steelmanning-and-stress-testing-your-own-view.md) (premium content)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: Forming Balanced Views](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/checkpoint-forming-balanced-views.md) (premium content)
- [Course cheatsheet](https://everwise.study/courses/civic-literacy-and-media-awareness/cheatsheet.md) (premium content)