maps, news and geography

News GeographyCatherine D’Ignazio

The MIT Center for Civic Mediadignazio@mit.edu

First

Maps seduce us with

• Facticity• Their complexity and claim to completeness• Their visuality and our desire to see the “whole world”

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius, 1570

Hand-held Subway by Nina Katchadourian, 1996

As data designers you can use that seductive power of the map not just to describe the world but to reimagine the world

Targets by Joyce Kozloff, 2000

Silent London by Simon Elvins, 2005

Political/Hydrological by Lauren Rosenthal, 2006

Pumpkin Map by Denis Wood

The upside-down Hobo-Dyer Equal Area Projection

Mapping the GlobeCatherine D’Ignazio, Research AssistantMIT Center for Civic Media

Mapping the Globe

✦ Is news coverage distributed equally in Greater Boston?✦ What factors explain the unequal distribution of attention?✦ Beyond quantitative measures of media attention how can

we assess qualitative measures?

globe.mediameter.org

globe.mediameter.org

globe.mediameter.org

globe.mediameter.org

globe.mediameter.org

globe.mediameter.org

mediacloud.org

Next Steps • Global

• Comparative

• Integrated with MediaCloud

11"

Q. Can a computer tell

where this article is about?!!!A. 70-90% Yes!!

11"

Q. Can a computer tell

where this article is about?!!!A. 70-90% Yes!!

Geoparsing the News 101

Q. Can a computer tell where this text is about?

A. Yes! With 85% accuracy.

Geoparsing the News 102

Stanford NER parser

CLAVIN

Civic sauce

News Article

Geolocated article

Lightning Tour of Map Tech

Do you just need to make an image?

• Wikimedia for shape files + Adobe Illustrator for editing

• Use an .SVG file for easy styling with CSS

Do you need to do spatial analysis?

• ArcGIS by ESRI

• QGIS for open source GIS

• Then Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for laying out the image

• CartoDB for GIS in the browser

Do you want to make an interactive web map?

• Google Maps API

• LeafletJS

• Modest Maps

• OpenLayers

• D3.js

Do you need a particular projection?

Do you need to zoom?

• Use a tile-based system like:

• Google Maps API

• LeafletJS

Do you want really awesome map tiles?

Check out the custom ones from Stamen Design

Do you want fine-grained control over styles & colors?

• MapBox/LeafletJS/TileMill - CartoCSS language

• Google Maps API has the “StyledMapsWizard”

Do you want to be able to print your map?

• D3.js

• Base your map on an SVG file & style with CSS

• Or just make it a static image

Do you need to show custom shapes?

• GIS shapefiles -> KML -> GoogleMaps

• GIS shapefiles -> GDAL/OGR -> GeoJSON -> GoogleMaps/LeafletJS

• GIS shapefiles -> GDAL/OGR -> GeoJSON -> D3 -> TopoJSON -> D3.js

Do you want to show time?

• D3 transitions

• CartoDB

• http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2012/oct/01/first-world-war-royal-navy-ships-mapped

thanks

more info:dignazio@mit.edu

civic.mit.edu/blog/kanarinka