Why data is never raw — Nick Barrowman, the New Atlantis
Why it’s wrong and perhaps even dangerous to expect “raw data” to be neutral and strictly factual.
How data are construed, recorded, and collected is the result of human decisions — decisions about what exactly to measure, when and where to do so, and by what methods. Inevitably, what gets measured and recorded has an impact on the conclusions that are drawn.
[…] piece builds on the idea that there is no such thing as neutral data, and combines it with the fact that humans are naturally drawn towards […]