It should be one of the goals of anyone presenting information to the public, especially journalists: provide perspective for your audience.
If you tell them that their government has spent a million dollars on such and such, include the size of that government's annual budget. A million bucks in Washington is chump change. A million dollars in Millbrook is, well, real money.
Here a good way of visualizing the differences between large budget numbers:
One Million seconds = 12 days.
One Billion seconds = 31 years.
One Trillion seconds = 31,688 years.
Perspective helps you, and your audience, understand.
[Media Extra is a media posting in-between the Monday Morning Media Memos.]
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