Mapmakers

Comprehensive and Proportional

Mapmakers of the world unite! In writing news articles? That’s right, because a great analogy to describe journalism is mapmaking. I like this quote that describes mapmaking, but in a sense describes the art of journalism at the same time, “Map making requires not only precision and talent, but accuracy in order to be an effective tool for the user.” A mapmaker must be EXTREMELY accurate in their art because if they’re off by just a little bit on a map, it could throw the reader off by a lot. Parallel that to journalism and if you’re stories aren’t very accurate, it could throw the reader off. If a map is wrong a person ends up in the wrong place and doesn’t know where they are, if a story is wrong the reader ends up with false knowledge both of which lead to utter confusion.

 Another parallel of the two is that when a map is wrong the reader of that map will follow it blindly, end up somewhere they don’t like, and then throw that map away never to use it again. For journalism if a story is wrong, the reader will follow it blindly, end up with incomplete knowledge, and possibly never come back to that writer again. This one mistake can cause a journalist their credibility.

Mapmaking can also be an analogy to the idea of targeted demographics. Oftentimes in journalism this is used with a negative connotation as in to beware of targeting demographics because stations that cover a wider range of topics will have more of an audience. However, in an article speaking of mapmaking it states that, “No single map can show everything, so the features portrayed on each map are selected to fit a particular purpose.” (to read more Click Here). I believe that this can be related back to journalism in the same way. No one story can tell everything, so some stories may be targeted more towards certain groups at certain times.