Maps in Journalism

Mark Monmonier

Maps are important to journalism because location is a key part of many newsworthy events. Local stories on home invasions, road closures, and zoning disputes have geographic elements for which words alone are often inadequate—readers want to be able to visualize where an event occurred as well as know what happened. And for stories about natural disasters and terrorist attacks in unfamiliar locations, maps can satisfy the editor's need for an illustration as well as the reader's thirst for details. In addition to small, straightforward displays relating a single location to a geographic framework of boundaries, place names, and nearby landmarks, maps describing multiple locations can enrich feature stories covering phenomena as diverse as rare-bird sightings, contaminated wells, and school attendance zones. And in addition to decorating the page or television screen while highlighting the report, a map can reveal potentially meaningful patterns as well as help readers assess the ...

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