Mapping the News

Matthew Ericson, Deputy Graphics Director at the New York Times and our dinner Keynote speaker Thursday night, spoke to us about Mapping the News. In creating maps and other graphics, Matt’s goal is to help readers better understand the news, especially in cases where geography relates to the stories being reported. He explained that there are 6 full-time map makers at the NY Times, with about 20 other graphics people who work on other informational and diagrammatic graphics, as well as statistical presentations of data.

Research for the maps is, of course, done on deadline. Information and data sets for the maps and graphics are drawn from a number of different sources. While they do get much of their core or base data (e.g., census data) from government agencies, they mostly draw upon identified experts, wire services, reporters in the field, graphics editors sent out on assignment, and the best data-modelers. A graphics coordinator is assigned to each major desk at the paper, and there is a good exchange of ideas between editors. Sometimes the graphic is created to illustrate a specific story; sometimes the graphic comes first and the story develops from there.

In response to questions about the software he uses, Matt explained that the more data-driven a map is, the more likely it will be done with GIS software. In many instances the initial plotting is done with GIS (ArcView) software, and then Adobe Illustrator is used to clean up the image and add additional graphics. They also use Natural Scene Designer, especially to produce shaded relief maps.

Matt presented a variety of examples from the NY Times to illustrated the different ways he produces maps and other informational graphics. He used the paper’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina in particular to demonstrate how exactly the data sets, reporters’ coverage, news wire services, and other information sources are brought together to create the story that we see when it is published.

When asked about how they check the accuracy of maps after they have been produced, Matt explained that they pass maps (e.g., emailed as a pdf file) back to the reporters covering the areas the maps portray and ask them to verify that the portrayal is correct. In other cases they might use in-house or known experts on the topic to check the accuracy. They always try to work with the best, most accurate data sets they can find, or that their reporters and graphics editors can gather in the field.

GIS software is also used by Matt to uncover patterns that might otherwise remain unseen, and in doing so actually find new stories. One specific example of when GIS uncovered data for a story was in regard to the places in Atlanta where evacuees from New Orleans moved - it was unexpected to see that evacuees were moving to more affluent areas in Atlanta than those where they had lived in New Orleans. Interestingly enough, in this case the graphical representation was not the best way to present the information as a story. Another example where GIS uncovered the data, and again where the data was not presented graphically, was a demographic comparison of the New Orleans neighborhoods that were hit hard by Katrina compared to those that were not.

Matt stressed the importance of honest portrayal of the news, i.e., the goal of finding the best and most accurate way to present data to the reader. He used several renditions of red state-blue state/Bush-Kerry maps as examples of how the graphical representation of the data can look misleading, and he discussed exploring different presentation methods to find the one that most accurately portrayed Bush-Kerry voting by county.

Matt’s presentation gave us a great in-depth look at the background data for, and creation of, many of the maps we have seen recently in the NY Times. We got a good feel for the amount of time that goes into making these maps, the methods for gathering data or locating the best data sets, and the attention given to the honest and accurate portrayal of data while at the same designing to maintain reader interest (especially for stories that appear over a long span of time, such as the coverage of Katrina). Thanks, Matt!