hopelessly devoted to deconstructing popular culture and conventional wisdom, one blog at a time

Why are there typos in the Most Literate Cities study?

Published Tuesday, August 03, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's "Most Literate Cities" study is interesting for many things; among them, misspelling Tucson and Glendale, Ariz., in rankings charts for newspaper circulation. Local media, of course, are quick to add the study to news broadcasts because they love to trumpet or bemoan any city ranking report.

Some flaws the media won't be quick to point out: 1) the study uses 2000 Census figures in mid-2004, which, well, hardly paints an accurate picture of any metro area in the rapidly growing West (and parts of the South), 2) the study uses local newspaper circulation, which fails to include how many folks are reading national papers such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times, and 3) that mixing data from 2003-2004 with Census data from 2000 is a no-no.

Or didn't you notice the discrepancy that has tony suburbs Plano, Texas, and Scottsdale, Ariz., as tops in education but tied for dead last in newspaper circulation? Hmmmm...