Mapping the News

MAPPING THE NEWS
Maps serve several different purposes as can be seen in some of the previoius posts of this blog. They can be used as references like in atlases, roadmaps, or You-Are-Here maps in malls to help people find their way. They can be used aesthetically as a compliment to a company logo or on a brochure or pamphlet. But maps can also tell a story or provide supporting evidence to a story. That is why maps are often used by news agencies—broadcast, print, and web-based.
Maps in the news can be used for reference purposes. For example, when an accident occurs a map may be used to show where it occurred, or a newspaper might print a story about a particularly dangerous intersection and use a map to display where that intersection is. Here are two examples of this kind of news map: From a Reno Gazette Journal story (see the bottom of the article), and from an Ames, Iowa article. Thematic maps are also used by news agencies to help support the point of a news story. This website, posted by the University of New York, Buffalo, has a lot of good examples of thematic maps used in the news. A few are below:

Map of U.S. Pollen Seasons

Aventis Pharmaceuticals Seasonal Allergies p. 8-9

Map of Mountain Lion Attacks in U.S.

This was from an article in Discover magazine about mountain lion attacks. "The moutain lion is the most widely distributed large predator in the western hemisphere. Since the 1960s, bag limits have replaced bounties and lion populations in the United States and Canada have grown to around 15,000 spreading even into some suburbs. Of the 17 fatal and 68 nonfatal attacks on people since 1890, a disproportionate number (above) have occurred within the past decade."--Caption. Source: "Is That a Mountain Lion in Your Backyard?" Discover 22:6 (June 2001): 63.







I found an interesting website posted by the Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona. It is titled Mapping the News, so I felt compelled to include it in this weeks blog assignment. It is an interactive world map with a drop-down list of countries. If you choose a country, a window pops-up and gives a short demographic breakdown and history of the country and also provides a timeline of recent major news events from that country. It is pretty cool you should check it out here.