|
|||||||||||||||
|
Feature Media GIS by Susan Smith Seeking to bring more in-depth reporting and more timely coverage to readers, several newspapers across the country have adopted GIS technology in the newsroom.
Ten years ago, stacks of paper were the norm in any newsroom, and the computer was an editing tool extraordinaire, allowing writers make massive corrections to text and to get their stories out on time, meeting even tighter deadlines. Writers felt sufficiently competent just knowing Microsoft Word or WordPerfect and being able to navigate their office''s networking system. Times have definitely changed: now they can take courses in "computer assisted reporting." Over the last three years, we have seen increasingly comprehensive maps displayed in newspapers - detailing the 2000 Presidential Election results, targeting the path of hurricanes, outlining the flight patterns of the jets that crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. These maps have been generated by GIS, using its data to illuminate current events. The value of this technology to journalists is self-evident, in terms of showing all kinds of information not only in maps, but charts that are based upon a database of information that would not be as effective if offered in pie chart or table form, as from an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, GIS has been responsible for revealing stories that might otherwise remain untold or untellable. For example, as far back as 1992, investigative reporter Stephen Doig used GIS in his Pulitzer winning work for the Miami Herald on building permit fraud in the post-trauma of Hurricane Andrew for the. His research involved overlaying geographically specific wind speed maps with building inspection damage reports, finding that apparently more damage was done to buildings where there were lower wind speeds. This anomaly ultimately led to closer scrutiny and the conclusion that building inspection practices were not on the up and up. The Philadelphia Inquirer displays daily commuter patterns using GIS. Jennifer LaFleur of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was already a GIS user before applying that knowledge to journalism. She says it''s not that difficult to teach: "When I teach journalism GIS training for Investigative Reporters and Editors (based at the University of Missouri), we''re able to get people through the basics and doing stuff in three days of intensive training." At the Post-Dispatch, LaFleur uses GIS for many different types of stories: census, transportation, politics, environment and numerous others. Currently, they are using ArcView 3.2, but will be migrating over to 8.0 soon. Media GIS Continued… ESRI has obviously seen the import of GIS in the media, as it has this last month released MapShop 1.5, in an alliance with The Associated Press (AP). Said to be a robust, easy-to-use tool for creating custom maps for the news media, MapShop is built using the Geography Network infrastructure from ESRI. MapShop subscribers have the added bonus of access to ArcView desktop GIS tools as well as the GIS data available through the web application. Many journalists have a good understanding of GIS now and use it in their daily work, thus they can comment on the usability of products in a way that vendors such as ESRI should pay attention to.
The latest release of MapShop sports a few new features: There are other products out there, while not specifically designed for the newsroom, that are easy to learn and not costly, according to T.J. Johnson, co-director of Boston University''s School of Analytic Journalism. MapInfo''s BusinessMapPro, and Caliper''s Maptitude are just a couple of the products that are used extensively by the media. The dropping prices of GIS software and installation has definitely made it more accessible to media companies. The fact is, GIS is already being used in circulation, advertising and other departments dependent on geocoding - or addresses - so the data and the GIS exist somewhere within the journalistic organization. Sharing that data might be the next step, then cleaning it up so that it might be usable for a greater research project. LaFleur says their data does not come from within the organization; they try to stay separate. Most of the boundary files come from the Census Bureau or other government agencies, or "whatever agencies handle the other data I work with. Most of it requires some cleaning and adjusting of geographic codes to make them compatible with maps." The tools are often touted as the be-all and end-all of successful communication, yet the tools used are essentially only as good as the data and database they originated from. According to Johnson, you must get the database clean and stable first. Also, if database information is segmented by zip codes for one map and police precincts for another, you will get mismatched results. Maps with different scales can cause problems as well as overlaying information on maps that don''t fit together. Interesting Links:
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
