Mapping the News

Mapping the News can be taken in many different ways I suppose. You could look at that term and say to your self "well they're obviously talking about making weather maps, or political maps right?" And yes, you could be completely right. Or better yet, you could probably just list the different maps that the news uses these days. Everything from the before mentioned weather and political maps to voting patterns, to even simple road maps used as examples in a breaking story of some sort. But what if we took this title and just applied it directly to a map? We could use dot density methods to identify news stations, news paper offices, distribution centers, and the same for all other media sources. We could use graduated symbol methods for identifying locations of and magnitude of coverage areas or even migration symbols to show distribution routes as well. So, instead of the news mapping us, we could map the news! A novel concept if I may say so myself. We could put the media under the cartographic microscope and show their patterns. Better yet, we could make an array of maps showing where our media personalities live or just make a simple chloropleth map depicting the percentage of people employed by the media. So, the point here is not only that we "map makers" could work for the media and produce maps to support what ever topic they may wish us to, but we could hold them at the point of observation as well. I just figured it would be a nice twist to throw in the "mercinary factor" on this blog =)

Map Colors: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Map Colors: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly



This map has an excellent use of colors. My argument based on the fact that appropriate colors are used and applicable for the different components of the map.
First is the lettering. The lettering for cities, countries, numbers, and sources are all in black to have a good figure ground contrast. Next is the use of blue for the lettering of water bodies and the water bodies themselves. Additionally, with the exception of two countries, each country is colored a distinct color to clearly identify that it is its own separate entity from the rest. When the same color or near colors were used for Rwanda, and Sudan, they were on opposite sides of the map. The last use of color I wanted to emphasize is the use of color on the north arrow. It is in a rather bright orange in comparison to its background which makes it stand out and become easily identifiable. Overall, this map, though basic, is a great example of good use of color.

map fact/ map fiction

So, I'm sitting around thinking about assignment given during class and it hits me: maps can be what ever you want them to be, and in any case, they can be both fact and fiction. What I mean by this is that the map creator will create a map based on a specific audience and that audience is the only ones who will benefit completely from the map. On the flip side of that, if a different audience tries to use that map for purposes other than it was intended for, the information could be taken completely out of context and the map would be considered fictional information rather than factual information. With this being said, I believe that all maps that are created are going to fall into both categories just because you can not create a map to suit every possible purpose for the area being mapped. Examples: Topographic maps are of very little use to people navigating through cities, tourist maps are of no use to most researchers , and road maps are of little use to aviators and back country hiking enthusiasts.

Going along with this map fact/ map fiction theme, it is the map creators literal duty to create a map that accurately expresses what they are trying to convey to the audience in the best way possible and while presenting this map, clearly define the audience so as not to confuse anyone else who may want to unknowingly use it for other than its intended purposes. By doing this, the map creator reduces the liability of their information, and reputation. They will be able to produce an accurate, well planned map and know that it is being used so as to maximize the information it has to offer within.

That is my take on this map fact/ map fiction theme. I just know that information can be portrayed in so many different forms and used to sway an audience either in favor, or against a topic or issue and the misuse of this resource could be detrimental in the wrong circumstance. Just as in medicine, law and government...well maybe not so much in government, there is a strict code of ethics that should be followed, so too must the geographer when producing these maps because one never knows when it could be used wrongfully and what the consequences of that may be.

That is all...