Gas Falls to $3.32 Per Gallon in Missouri; But Don't Expect Much Media Attention; It's Not Bad News
Link.
Prediction: Falling gas prices will receive considerably less media attention than rising gas prices.
Exhibit A:
Google News search (last 30 days) for "rising gas prices": 6,300 results
Google News search for "falling gas prices": 37
Ratio: 170 to 1
In other words, rising gas prices have gotten 170 times as much media attention as falling gas prices during the last 30 days. What makes this especially interesting is that gas prices have mostly been falling over the last 30 days, and yet rising prices are reported 170 as much as falling prices!
8 Comments:
So the media keeps reprotingthe drop in oil prices is related to a drop in the economy or demand. If demand is down 2-3% and oil is down 17% the charts don't work.
I think the daily fluxuations in oil over the last 3 weeks should be charted agianst political comments that would effect future supply not demand.
What a deceptive graph. Try fixing the minimum y axis value at 0 and then see how dramatic it looks then.
oops ... "and see how dramatic it looks then"
The article is about how far gas has fallen in Missouri in the last 30 days. It shows the peak and the current price (i.e. how far it has fallen) of gas in Missouri over that timeframe. Nothing deceptive at all. Why set it at zero? That's not a realistic price. It seems you want to make the price decrease seem less "dramatic" than it actually is.
Perhaps even worse, here is a media attempt to make it bad news!
Bad news when it goes up, bad news when it goes down.
Amazing.
Falling oil prices: The downside
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/04/news/oil.recession.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008080415
I live in St. Louis county and I can tell you that the price drop is indeed dramatic...
Over the last ten days the local QT (local chain of convience stores) near me has seen a price drop of $4.03 to $3.38...
Diz,
Thanks for a reeeel good laugh. Can't recall any time where fear has sold more than it does today.
How are future on the 4 horsemen of the Apolcalypse?
I've seen you do this a few times. You type a phrase into Google, wait for the search results and then make a broad, sweeping statement like, "... rising gas prices have gotten 170 times as much media attention as falling gas prices during the last 30 days." I'm crying foul. The more recent the news, the less likely Google will find it. This is bad science, plain and simple. Your point is valid, but you should choose a different metric.
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