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Project Examples
Issues of
Representation
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Using Statistics to Analyze Issues in the Media
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Students from Focsani, Romania
School 10
Teacher Petru Dumitru
Students Ages 9-10
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The
pupils of our class worked at a statistics during December
1999, its subject being the personalities who appeared on
the front page of four papers, 3 of them national and a
local one. We exchanged these statistics with our partner
class in Barcelona who conducted a parallel project. This
report is by Oana Sacalus, "Duiliu Zamfirescu" School, Focsani,
Romania
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The activity took place on a partnership, together with Lavinia
School Barcelona, Spain. There were 27 students involved divided
in 7 workshops. The first stage of the activity was collecting the
information from the newspapers. We used the nationals "The Event
of the Day", "The National Journal", "The Trough" and the local
paper "Vrancea Monitor". The data were organized and centralized
in a chart. The third stage meant the elaboration of the graphics
and the interpretation of the information. The fourth and last stage
meant the final report and the information exchange with the partner
school from Spain.
We took into account 6 domains: Policy, Economy, Sports, Society,
Spectacles and others. The basic data were grouped depending on
sexes and there were registered by counting the personalities
that appeared on the first page either in photographs or in articles.
Each workshop organized the data in charts. The interpretation
and comparing of the data took place in the classroom, depending
on the level of understanding of our age.
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| Week |
First
Week |
Second
Week |
Third
Week |
Fourth
Week |
| Sex |
M |
W |
B |
M |
W |
B |
M |
W |
B |
M |
W |
B |
| News |
| Policy |
12 |
4 |
16 |
7 |
2 |
9 |
8 |
1 |
9 |
7 |
2 |
9 |
| Economy |
9 |
5 |
14 |
6 |
3 |
9 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| Sports |
3 |
6 |
9 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Society |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
4 |
10 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
| Spectacles |
2 |
7 |
9 |
3 |
6 |
9 |
7 |
10 |
17 |
4 |
7 |
11 |
| Other |
14 |
9 |
21 |
18 |
11 |
29 |
21 |
16 |
37 |
11 |
14 |
25 |
| TOTAL |
41 |
33 |
74 |
40 |
26 |
66 |
45 |
31 |
46 |
27 |
26 |
53 |
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It was registered a number of 269 persons, 116 women and 153 men.
The maximum number of women was registered in the first week (33)
and the minimum number in the second week and fourth week (26).
The maximum number of women was registered in the domain entitled
"Others" in the third week (16).
|
| Days |
December
1- 31 |
| Sex |
Women |
Men |
Both |
| News |
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| Policy |
9 |
34 |
43 |
| Economy |
8 |
19 |
27 |
| Sports |
8 |
8 |
16 |
| Society |
11 |
12 |
23 |
| Spectacles |
30 |
16 |
46 |
| Other |
50 |
64 |
114 |
| TOTAL |
116 |
153 |
269 |
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The domain entitled "Policy" was a preoccupation to the media in
the period of time that was mentioned because the government was
reshuffled and a woman was appointed the minister of the social
protection.
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The maximum number of men was registered in the third
week (45), and the minimum number in the second week (26). In the
respect of the activity domains, the maximum number was registered
in the domain named "Other" (21) and the minimum number at "Sports
in the fourth week.
It was noticed that in the last week (the 20-26 December) the
papers gave attention to other domains. This may be due to the
beginning of the winter festivals.
The maximum number of men and women was registered at the "Others"
category maybe because the diversity of subjects, other than the
first 5 proposed by us:
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Womenís
classification:
1.
Others (50)
2.
Spectacles (30)
3.
Society (11)
4.
Policy (9)
5.
Economy (8)
6.
Sports (8) |
Menís
classification:
1.
Other (64)
2.
Policy (34)
3.
Economy (19)
4.
Spectacles (16)
5.
Society (2)
6.
Sports (8) |
General
classification:
1.
Other (114)
2.
Spectacles (46)
3.
Policy (43)
4.
Economy (27)
5.
Society (23)
6.
Sports (16) |
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It has been noticed the difference between the preferences
of the 2 sexes. Excepting the first place, women prefer working
on spectacles while men prefer policy, maybe?
We think that spectacles are not the women's preferences or choice
than the more serious politics or economy. Our society creates
different kinds of opportunity for women and man.
In our life there are many forces that keep girls from having
the same opportunities as boys while in our school more girls
than boys won a lot of prices in school subjects competitions.
This phenomenon can be explained by the opportunities offered
by our society.
Young girls are not discouraged when they look in the media and
primarily see women in the less important roles. They are convinced
that they will be able to graduate the best schools in Romania
while they cannot anticipate the opportunities offered by life
itself.
This activity was helpful because it connected us to the political,
economical, social and cultural realities of our country. In this
way we were familiarized to collect, to assembly, to classify
and to explain significant information about this subject.
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