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Mass media influences spatial perception through journalistic cartography and spatial bias in news coverage.
Journalism plays a crucial role in providing the general public with information about places and geography. [1] Mass media, which includes television, newspapers, magazines, and radio, significantly shapes perceptions of locations. [2] [3] However, mass media has been criticized for its limited iconography, which constructs generic locations that offer a restricted and distorted worldview. [4] The lack of geographical balance in news coverage may limit spatial knowledge, with US media often focusing on a narrow range of nations and regions for international news. [5]
When news has an important geographic component, journalism concerns itself with the location of the information. [6] Maps are an efficient means of showing location and describing geographic relationships. [7] Mass media may use maps to illustrate spatially distributed data, such as election results, acid rain distribution, radon contamination, weather forecasts, traffic, or travel routes. Maps can also depict stories about battles, geopolitical strategies, or environmental threats. [6] Critics argue that journalistic cartography suffers from deficiencies and constraints due to the lack of formal cartographic training among graphic artists who produce these maps. [8] [9]
Geographers have explored spatial bias in news reporting. [10] [11] The spatial pattern of news is influenced by journalistic norms, such as national coverage, national interest, geographic stereotypes, and accessibility to news events. [12] Live reporting requires spatial proximity, event proximity, and broadcast proximity. [13] Capitals, major financial centres, and politically unstable places are often geographically stereotyped and considered newsworthy. Economic ties and social distance also play significant roles in news coverage. [2] [12] [14] [15] [16]
Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography which studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment, examples of which include urban sprawl and urban redevelopment. It analyzes spatial interdependencies between social interactions and the environment through qualitative and quantitative methods. This multidisciplinary approach draws from sociology, anthropology, economics, and environmental science, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the intricate connections that shape lived spaces.
Media bias occurs when journalists and news producers show bias in how they report and cover news. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" and the Greek suffix, "graphy", meaning "description", so a geographer is someone who studies the earth. The word "geography" is a Middle French word that is believed to have been first used in 1540.
News values are "criteria that influence the selection and presentation of events as published news." These values help explain what makes something "newsworthy."
The hostile media effect, originally deemed the hostile media phenomenon and sometimes called hostile media perception, is a perceptual theory of mass communication that refers to the tendency for individuals with a strong preexisting attitude on an issue to perceive media coverage as biased against their side and in favor of their antagonists' point of view. Partisans from opposite sides of an issue will tend to find the same coverage to be biased against them. The phenomenon was first proposed and studied experimentally by Robert Vallone, Lee Ross and Mark Lepper.
Waldo Rudolph Tobler was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer. Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century. He is most well known for coining what has come to be referred to as Tobler's first law of geography. He also coined what has come to be referred to as Tobler's second law of geography.
A choropleth map is a type of statistical thematic map that uses pseudocolor, meaning color corresponding with an aggregate summary of a geographic characteristic within spatial enumeration units, such as population density or per-capita income.
Claims of media bias in the United States generally focus on the idea of media outlets reporting news in a way that seems partisan. Other claims argue that outlets sometimes sacrifice objectivity in pursuit of growth or profits.
Health geography is the application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. Medical geography, a sub-discipline of, or sister field of health geography, focuses on understanding spatial patterns of health and disease in relation to the natural and social environment. Conventionally, there are two primary areas of research within medical geography: the first deals with the spatial distribution and determinants of morbidity and mortality, while the second deals with health planning, help-seeking behavior, and the provision of health services.
Spatial analysis is any of the formal techniques which studies entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties. Spatial analysis includes a variety of techniques using different analytic approaches, especially spatial statistics. It may be applied in fields as diverse as astronomy, with its studies of the placement of galaxies in the cosmos, or to chip fabrication engineering, with its use of "place and route" algorithms to build complex wiring structures. In a more restricted sense, spatial analysis is geospatial analysis, the technique applied to structures at the human scale, most notably in the analysis of geographic data. It may also be applied to genomics, as in transcriptomics data.
Mark Stephen Monmonier is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. He specializes in toponymy, geography, and geographic information systems.
In behavioral geography, a mental map is a person's point-of-view perception of their area of interaction. Although this kind of subject matter would seem most likely to be studied by fields in the social sciences, this particular subject is most often studied by modern-day geographers. They study it to determine subjective qualities from the public such as personal preference and practical uses of geography like driving directions.
Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power.
Geography is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. Geography has been called "a bridge between natural science and social science disciplines."
Media relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. It can also entail developing symbiotic relationships with media outlets, journalists, bloggers, and influencers to garner publicity for an organization. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features in the mass media. The goal of media relations is to maximize positive coverage in the mass media without paying for it directly through advertising.
Cartographic propaganda is a map created with the goal of achieving a result similar to traditional propaganda. The map can be outright falsified, or created using subjectivity with the goal of persuasion. The idea that maps are subjective is not new; cartographers refer to maps as a human-subjective product and some view cartography as an "industry, which packages and markets spatial knowledge" or as a communicative device distorted by human subjectivity. However, cartographic propaganda is widely successful because maps are often presented as a miniature model of reality, and it is a rare occurrence that a map is referred to as a distorted model, which sometimes can "lie" and contain items that are completely different from reality. Because the word propaganda has become a pejorative, it has been suggested that mapmaking of this kind should be described as "persuasive cartography", defined as maps intended primarily to influence opinions or beliefs – to send a message – rather than to communicate geographic information.
Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information.
How to Lie with Maps is a nonfiction book written by Mark Monmonier detailing issues with cartographic representation and targeted at the general public. First published in 1991 by the University of Chicago Press, it explores the various ways in which maps can be manipulated and how these distortions influence the general public's perceptions and understanding of the world. The book highlights the subjectivity involved in map-making and the potential for misuse of cartographic techniques, with a goal to "promote a healthy skepticism about maps."
Technological Transition in Cartography is a seminal book by Mark Monmonier, first published in 1985. The book explores the impact of technological advancements on the evolution of the field of cartography, examining how innovations in technology have transformed the methods and practices of mapmaking. The book was created to target cartography students of the time, and sought to demonstrate the importance of viewing cartography as a method of delivering geographic information, rather than using the technology.
