Supporting the activity restriction model, poorer self-rated vision in late life contributes to lower mental health directly and also indirectly by restricting individuals' ability to carry out routine day-to-day physical activities and increasing their feelings of social isolation. Interventions for older adults with vision-related problems could focus on maintaining or enhancing their physical and social functioning in order to promote their adaptation to poor vision.

Numbers have long been central to the practice of journalism. But most journalists use numbers with relatively little critical engagement. This practice presents journalists with a dilemma: how can they, and their stories, maintain their credibility when such key pieces of information are not verified? This article takes a mixed-method approach to journalists' use of numbers in their coverage of seven humanitarian crises in 2017. This includes a content analysis of news articles (n = 978) and semi-structured reconstruction interviews with journalists (n = 16). The findings highlight how journalists rarely verify the numbers they use. In place of verification, they engage in two processes. First, the constant construction of a hierarchy of trustworthy sources. Second, the discursive twinning of data with certaintyelevating databases above the most trustworthy institutional source. These two practices are aimed at ensuring the credibility of the numbers they use and maintaining the credibility of their profession by hiding behind trusted sources. These findings provide a rationale for why journalists trust certain sources over others, a detail lacking in the existing literature. It also puts forward a numbers-specific take on "strategic rituals" in the idea of "quantification as strategic ritual".

Over the past 25 years, the humanitarian sector has become increasingly dominated by numbers. This has been reflected in the growth of academic work that explores this relationship between humanitarianism and quantification. The most recent contribution to this literature is Joël Glasman’s Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Humanitarian Needs. Through his empirical and theoretical contributions, Glasman draws our attention to the different ways that academics approach this topic. These four strands structure the literature review: knowledge – the technical difficulties in quantifying phenomena; governance – how numbers help humanitarian organisations manage the sector; effects – the impact that quantification has had on the sector as a whole; meaning – the importance of rhetoric, discourse, representation and communication when it comes to understanding the quantitative. As part of the review, the essay also identifies how academics can better engage with each of the four strands.

This article analyses the way statistics were used by select British and South African news outlets in the coverage of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Taking asymmetrical warfare as their primary theoretical framework, we used a content analysis and interviews with journalists to uncover specific patterns and imbalances in the coverage. Within the text of the articles, we observed the way numbers served to legitimize Israeli attacks and de-legitimize attacks from Gaza. This can partially be explained by aspects of news production. Journalists described Israeli public relations as highly attuned to news production practices on the conflict. Taken as a whole, we argue that the use of numbers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict can be conceptualized within an asymmetrical information context. In doing so, we emphasize the need to examine text as well as production when researching this war and other conflicts.

This article examines the way numbers, often concerning risk, were communicated by politicians, covered by the news media and interpreted by the public during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis in the United Kingdom. To explore this topic, we adopted a mixed-methods approach that included content analysis, comparative thematic analysis and a series of focus groups. Whilst coherency and consistency are touted as essentials in public health messaging, our textual analysis highlighted the disconnect between political communication and news media coverage. Whereas the UK government relied on vague references to curves and peaks to underpin a narrative of consistency and certainty in public health policy, the UK news media referred to specific numbers from within and outside the UK to criticise the government's approach as haphazard and lacking. This disconnect gained even more significance during our focus groups. When discussing numbers, participants referred to news media coverage rather than political messaging, using these figures to challenge the timing and nature of the UK lockdown. These findings present a significant critique of the UK government's communication during this health crisis. Instead of putting forward a coherent, homogenous and clear message to the public, the discourse around numbers and risk was diffracted, disconnected and opaque. This was largely due to the competing narratives presented by the news media.