The News. Some people avoid it like the plague, but how can you really avoid a disease that killed one third of the population? The news is often presented in four popular media. TV, Print (newspaper), Radio, and Internet. I want to look at why any news firm would use maps, and then explore what that does to the public.
What is news?
I'll start with Radio. I looked into NPR, or the National Public Radio. Radio news is not a visual medium. Radio news programs use audio to send their message to their viewers. Radio can not use maps to relate data to it's populous.
TV is the ultimate visual medium. TV uses video clips, maps, pictures, interviews and loads of other visual tewture to reveal their message. TV news can be national such as CNN or local news such as News Chanel Eight both use maps to an extent. They may present an issue such as Yucca mountain, the news station provided a map of the transportation routes waste trucks and trains would use to get to yucca mountain. This map helps the veiwers better understand the issue at hand, presently the news stated the issue as being 55% of the waste going through populated places. Without the map people may not understand the issue to its fullest extent. The map helps bring the message home, and tells the veiwers to think, "this is bad, those trucks go by my house." The other types of maps you may happen to see are weather maps. Every news broadcast you see there will be a weather map, an isobar map, a precipitation map, a fronted map. All these maps help Show the people what is happening with the weather.
A third way news is made public is through the newspaper. The local newspaper, the Reno Gazette Journal is more visually based than TV. TV uses a plethera of visuals, but it also uses audio to promote its messege. But newspaper, newspaper is purley visiual. This would make you think that there would be maps all over newspapers, but in truth there are not as many as I would want. There are maps in newspapers, but I find there is a similar amount of cartographic production in newprint as on television. There is a weather map on every newspaper you pick up, from a local paper to a national paper, there is always a weather map.
Internet new sources are everywhere. All of the previous mediums have internet access news and there are other news sites that do not have a radio program, a TV show, or a newspaper, they are just online.
One other topic I wish to touch on before I conclude is the accuracy of newsmatic maps. Newspaper maps may be out of date by the time it's published, TV maps are probably accurate for the most part. I believe that maps in the news are simply to promote the initial topic the map is relevant too. This is a little different than looking at an atlas or the geological survey, where the map shows you all the data you could ever want to know. Maps in the news are not there to stand on their own, if they were to be viewed soley, they would mean nothing to any body, but because they are attached to the story, they help the audience better grasp what they are reading or hearing.
Maps in the news will never be great maps, but I think it's good they are represented in news to help visual people (such as myself) to better understand the possiblity of boring news.
Links:
http://news.rgj.com/
http://www.kolotv.com/
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.cnn.com/
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Cartographic animation and Interaction in the world today
Animated maps are becoming incredibly common over the internet. You can find them in many places dealing with a plethora of data. You can find interactive history maps, interactive reference maps, interactive maps exploring census data, and a myriad of animated maps concerning a broad range of subjects. Some interactive mapping sites include interactive reference maps such as: Google earth, world wind, virtual earth; some interactive driving directional maps or reference maps such as: Google maps, map quest, yahoo maps. These are all great mapping programs some located exclusively on the web while others can be bought or downloaded.
Some maps such as this interactive map of the united sates shows people the state capitols while the mouse cursor is over each respective state. Other maps show different aspects of history such as this map which shows the holocaust during world war two. Many maps across the internet are animated or have interactive capabilities.
The maps I wish to explore further are different weather maps. Most weather maps have capabilities of animation or interactivity. Weather maps can show a broad variety of things, some of which are radiation, precipitation, visibility, pressure levels, and wind velocity animated maps. Animated weather maps show weather patterns that change over time. This can be extremely useful to weekend travelers or professional meteorologists.
Some animated weather maps are located here: http://www.cpc.noaa.gov, http://www.weather.gov, http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/rev/.
Some maps such as this interactive map of the united sates shows people the state capitols while the mouse cursor is over each respective state. Other maps show different aspects of history such as this map which shows the holocaust during world war two. Many maps across the internet are animated or have interactive capabilities.
The maps I wish to explore further are different weather maps. Most weather maps have capabilities of animation or interactivity. Weather maps can show a broad variety of things, some of which are radiation, precipitation, visibility, pressure levels, and wind velocity animated maps. Animated weather maps show weather patterns that change over time. This can be extremely useful to weekend travelers or professional meteorologists.
Some animated weather maps are located here: http://www.cpc.noaa.gov, http://www.weather.gov, http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/rev/.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
American's think about themselves
What is the American identity? How do Americans identify themselves?
It is amazing how many Americans define and see themselves personally and as a nation. When the Americas were first being settled the American identity was anything that was not European. Then as we graduated through time it morphed, changed, was modified by modern thought to become a new identity. Americans now have a different view on the world, how they see the world, how the world sees them, and how they see themselves. I can’t give a perfect definition on what the new American identity is, but I can say it is still not European. It can be said that different Americans have a different identity, but all Americans must have one universal set of beliefs, single idea, or just common perception of something. This is what I will try and explore more thoroughly.
American identity can be traced through a great deal of audible and visual. If you watch a movie made in the sixties, there will be certain views Americans felt placed in the film. If you read a newspaper published during world war II then you would also see American propaganda proliferating America’s ideals and self perpetuation of the American identity as being the best, and as being right. You can also tell an Americans identity by the way the make, view, process, publish, and articulate different kinds of maps.
Look at how many ways America has been mapped. We have the most political maps in the world and the most studied political maps in the world. These maps include voting precincts, percentages
, red maps, blue maps, non-voters percentages; a plethora of maps just identifying political analysis. Is political mapping considers Americas identity? No, I think not, but perhaps it helps us understand what America’s identity is. Look at a political map. What does it tell us as viewers? Does it say the country is divided in two? Does Americans with different views hate each other? No, what it does say is what was stated earlier, even thought Americans have different views on something does not mean the have a different identity. There is still something that ties all Americans together.
Other maps have influenced how Americans think besides political maps. Political maps are just taking facts (hopefully truthful facts) and displaying the information visually. We can look at settlement maps and base what Americans identity is based on where they settled. Flow maps of where people came from could give us an idea of a common bond.
Maps are a way of communicating data visually and American identity can be pulled out of specific maps that target what American identity means. I can not classify American identity, but based on what you think about various maps, readings, movies, books, and radio; you can define an American identity. This will probably differ from what somebody else version of the same topic is, but all American identity truly is, is an individuals ideas on Americans as a whole. Of course this idea will change from person to person. But that does not make any one person wrong or right on the matter. So, choose for yourself what American identity is after you have thought about it, and looked at the American culture through its ideas.
It is amazing how many Americans define and see themselves personally and as a nation. When the Americas were first being settled the American identity was anything that was not European. Then as we graduated through time it morphed, changed, was modified by modern thought to become a new identity. Americans now have a different view on the world, how they see the world, how the world sees them, and how they see themselves. I can’t give a perfect definition on what the new American identity is, but I can say it is still not European. It can be said that different Americans have a different identity, but all Americans must have one universal set of beliefs, single idea, or just common perception of something. This is what I will try and explore more thoroughly.
American identity can be traced through a great deal of audible and visual. If you watch a movie made in the sixties, there will be certain views Americans felt placed in the film. If you read a newspaper published during world war II then you would also see American propaganda proliferating America’s ideals and self perpetuation of the American identity as being the best, and as being right. You can also tell an Americans identity by the way the make, view, process, publish, and articulate different kinds of maps.
Look at how many ways America has been mapped. We have the most political maps in the world and the most studied political maps in the world. These maps include voting precincts, percentages
, red maps, blue maps, non-voters percentages; a plethora of maps just identifying political analysis. Is political mapping considers Americas identity? No, I think not, but perhaps it helps us understand what America’s identity is. Look at a political map. What does it tell us as viewers? Does it say the country is divided in two? Does Americans with different views hate each other? No, what it does say is what was stated earlier, even thought Americans have different views on something does not mean the have a different identity. There is still something that ties all Americans together.Other maps have influenced how Americans think besides political maps. Political maps are just taking facts (hopefully truthful facts) and displaying the information visually. We can look at settlement maps and base what Americans identity is based on where they settled. Flow maps of where people came from could give us an idea of a common bond.
Maps are a way of communicating data visually and American identity can be pulled out of specific maps that target what American identity means. I can not classify American identity, but based on what you think about various maps, readings, movies, books, and radio; you can define an American identity. This will probably differ from what somebody else version of the same topic is, but all American identity truly is, is an individuals ideas on Americans as a whole. Of course this idea will change from person to person. But that does not make any one person wrong or right on the matter. So, choose for yourself what American identity is after you have thought about it, and looked at the American culture through its ideas.
Here are some sites for other research on American Identity:
Picture curtesy of: http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/maps/ancestry/us/italian.gif
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Factual maps arn't always cool
Maps have been trusted as fact since they were first created. Maps were and are the only way people can perceive great areas of space and analyze them. All the good maps, the maps worth analyzing, the maps worth seeing, are the maps that are perceived as being factual. The election maps you see are seen by its many viewers as being absolute fact. This is not always the case, sometimes these maps can be misleading or down right wrong. Maps in the early days of mapmaking were often wrong, but they were still thought to be right by the locale populous. These are both good examples of maps that although they are thought to be correct in every facet of their existence, are often times or always wrong.
Fictional maps are often not incorrect maps because of the maps themselves, but because of the data used to compile these maps, or the time at which the data was collected. If you have faulty or corrupt data to put maps together, the end result is going to be an untrue and incorrect map.
Map fact can be successfully described as correct data put into a map using all of the data correctly.
Map fiction can be described as either an incorrectly used data set, bad data used on a map, or just bad data and a bad interpretation.
There are other ways to think about fictitious maps, maps that are of places that do not exist. Such maps do not have any data sets so all of these types of maps are as accurate as can be. This is because these fictitious maps are just creations of someone’s mind and do not need any actual coordinates or number values to represent what the author wants.
Fictional maps are often not incorrect maps because of the maps themselves, but because of the data used to compile these maps, or the time at which the data was collected. If you have faulty or corrupt data to put maps together, the end result is going to be an untrue and incorrect map.
Map fact can be successfully described as correct data put into a map using all of the data correctly.
Map fiction can be described as either an incorrectly used data set, bad data used on a map, or just bad data and a bad interpretation.
There are other ways to think about fictitious maps, maps that are of places that do not exist. Such maps do not have any data sets so all of these types of maps are as accurate as can be. This is because these fictitious maps are just creations of someone’s mind and do not need any actual coordinates or number values to represent what the author wants.
Maps Courtesy of:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/
http://www.bjornetjenesten.dk/teksterdk/Tolkien/middle-earth-film.jpg
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