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Herb, et al.,

To the credit of the Washington Post, an editorial writer has asked for
the full text of our Pew Internet study question on the number of Very
Close ties, and I have given him Mean and Median stats. (I thought
quartiles would be overkill.) From our correspondence, it seems as if the
Post may well point out that we're not as isolated as their previous
headline stated: "Social Isolation Growing in the U.S., Study Says" (June
23), although their subhead more accurate reports the ASR article, "The
Number of People Who Say They Have No One to Confide in Has Risen".

The NY Times, btw, just reprinted the AP story, without doing their own
reporting: "Study: American's Social Contacts Slipping." (June 23).
 Barry
 _____________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162

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On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Herbert J Gans wrote:

> Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:50:11 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Herbert J Gans <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Barry Wellman <[log in to unmask]>
> Cc: social networks list <[log in to unmask]>,
> communication and information technology section asa
> <[log in to unmask]>,
> asa com&urb section e-list <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [Comurb_r21] overstated media inference from fine study
>
>
> Alas, jurnalists do that in part because they get no training in
> statistics or sociology to speak of and Barry, you did well to correct the
> misinterpretation. Its the only way to deal with their misinterpretations
> until journalism education catches up. But note that Bill Wilsons concern
> with social isolation has made it into the media. Heb Gans
>

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