Editor’s note: The Daily will run a media literacy column by Sarah Cavanah, interim executive director of Oklahoma Scholastic Media and former Daily staff writer, every Tuesday to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at The Daily and media coverage in general.

The University of Michigan football team has won a higher percentage of their games (.737) than any other team in NCAA Division 1 FBS football. Then again, the University of Florida has won more games in the past 20 years than any other team.

But those stats are meaningless, because the Sooners are the “winningest” team since World War II, when the “modern era” began. Or at least that’s when the modern era began here in Norman, because we wouldn’t be able to say we’re the best if it started at any other time.

Last week, “dargus,” a commenter on OUDaily.com, expressed concern about The Daily’s use of statistics in stories. “Dargus” was mainly worried about stats not being attributed in opinion columns.

According to editorial adviser Judy Gibbs Robinson, all Daily news staffers are trained to provide a source for any information that either they didn’t observe for themselves or is not common knowledge.

The opinion section is something different. These writers can choose whether they want to be neutral or practice advocacy journalism.

The difference is like the difference between writing the official NCAA history of college football (neutral) and writing a book targeted at a specific set of fans (advocacy).

For instance, if I wanted to write a column stressing that teachers need to be paid more, I would cite the Economic Policy Institute’s stats that teachers make 14.3 percent less than workers in comparable occupations.

If I wanted to advocate that the teacher-pay situation was overblown, I would give out the Hoover Institute’s finding that American teachers make $3,200 more per year than the average full-time worker.

Both pieces of information are derived from the same data sets, but the organizations promoting them have found a way to express their opinions through the presentation of the numbers. In a news story, ideally, the reporter would give you the philosophical backgrounds of these organizations.

Opinion writers have a choice. If I’m an ethical writer and sure of my position, I would tell you where I got my stats. But, if I’m feeling a little shaky, I might give out those numbers without attribution, leaving less sophisticated readers to believe they descended from above on a magical spreadsheet bathed in light.

In terms of the opinion section, it’s up to readers like “dargus” to question those figures. We wouldn’t want people thinking Michigan is the most successful football team.