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Media Math

By: Jessica Riley


Alex Mcpherson Headshot

Media math is something not many communicators are familiar with, especially younger university students. However, with the help of Alex McPherson, a former West Virginia University student and current VP analyst and Business Intelligence lead at Methods+Mastery, students of PRSSA were able to understand some tips and tricks on what media math is and why it is so important to future media workers. 

Media math, by definition, is the finding of certain data like median, statistics and social media measurement––all of which are becoming increasingly more popular with clients' demands. “The math is actually really important,” McPherson said. “You don’t have to make this math hard for yourself.” 

Along with this, Boolean queries were also explained, which is a subgenre of media math. Boolean queries are algebra that is based on the words or categories a certain company has, like a type of coding. This ‘coding’ has become more popular in the past few years and will continue only to grow bigger. McPherson stated that clients are wanting more statistical data and less written work. “The future is data science.” 

Slides of McPherson’s presentation described the multiple big-name clients he has worked with and the most common types of media math (or data information) the client requested. These clients included Google, Nintendo and Youtube. 

Media math is an increasingly important skill that many lack in the PR field; however, this skill is also becoming more in demand by larger companies. Using the tips and information PRSSA received, many students now have a better understanding of what potential clients are looking for and how they can prepare to find this information. 

“Learn some media math, it’ll help you tell better stories.”