Issue 133 – March 2024
AN OSCAR CLASS IN CONTEXT
Any time you share a number, especially if it’s massive or minuscule, you help your reader by providing context.
Were you among the 19.5 million viewers who tuned in to this year’s Academy Awards? If so, you may be wondering if that number is a little, or a lot. Were we among the Oscar-ignoring outliers or the trendsetters watching Oppenheimer walk away with Best Picture and six other awards?
That’s the context it’s helpful to know any time you share a number, especially if it’s massive or minuscule. So I went looking to give 19.5 million some context.
In Oscar terms, the show is making a comeback after a recent slump in viewers. That meant a record low of 10.6 million viewers in the U.S. in 2021 (Best Picture: Nomadland.) So 19.5 million is good! But no, it’s not as good as the more than 57 million viewers who watched Titanic take Best Picture and 10 other awards in 1998.
Nor is it as good as the Super Bowl this year. That drew a record 123.7 million viewers cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs or San Francisco 49rs or Taylor Swift. So I guess by comparison, Oscar viewers weren’t trendsetters OR outliers.
Having something to anchor your number to is an important factor when you’re sharing facts and figures. Here are five ways to help those numbers make sense, whether you’re tracking Academy Awards audiences or any other set of numbers:
1. Give numbers context
“Fifty million tons of plastic is roughly the same weight as 25 million cars; that’s almost twice the number of cars registered in California.” – Susanne Rust in the L.A. Times
2. Make a large number relatable by comparing it to something known
“At 250,000 gross tonnage, the colossal ship [largest cruise ship in the world, the Icon of the Seas] is about five times larger than the ill-fated RMS Titanic, and at 364 meters, the ship is longer than the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.” – Andrew Engelson in Hakai Magazine
3. Make a small number understandable by comparing it to something known
“If we think of all the water on Earth as an Olympic-sized swimming pool, the amount that’s available to plants within the soil would fill less than one soda bottle.” – Hope Jahren in Lab Girl
4. Create a story out of (boring) data
“[F]ewer than three people per year (2.4) were bitten or scratched by a coyote in Canada between 1995 and 2010. (In contrast, there are typically around 300,000 cases of dogs biting humans…The American Humane Society notes, ‘More people are killed by errant golf balls and flying champagne corks each year than are bitten by coyotes.’)” – Katie Daubs in the Toronto Star
5. Show significance without actual numbers
“[Blanding’s turtles] grow from the size of a loonie at birth to the size of a small baked potato by the time they are released, giving them a better chance of survival.” – Francine Kopun in the Toronto Star
You don’t have to rely on words alone. You could also pick a strong visual that tells the story, such as an elephant next to a mouse, or maybe a crowded theatre.
Have you seen any particularly helpful explanations of numbers? Please share. I’m always looking for good examples.
Related reading:
The stats and symbolism of the Academy Awards, aka Oscars
How to turn numbers into compelling stories
More in the Red Jacket Diaries:
Alt text, avoiding ageism and other ways to be inclusive
I'm annoyed with the phrase 'Of all stripes’
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