Becoming an astute user of news content in the media means learning to understand the proper use of data and statistics in the news. Watch this video:
Then read this brief article, written for journalists, to increase your general media literacy. Learn to spot the misuse of numbers "Become Data Literate in 3 Simple Steps"
Credits: TEDNYC talk recommended by Amelia Kallaher. Article from Understanding Data, part of The Data Journalism Handbook, Version 1.0 beta online.