Mapping the News

There are many different ways the news uses maps to show data to the public. First off the easiest to see is the weather maps that are used by the news to show the public the projected weather patterns. Many different maps are used for this, some are satelite images and others just projected maps with the data sets on top of them.

The projected weather forecasts are a simple way to give basic weather data to the public.

Another way they use maps are to show various political information so people can get a good hanlde on who supports each canidate in each area. They are mostly maps of the division of democrats and republicans views on issues but the can give a good idea of what is going on in the country.

A simple representation of the political divide map.

One last way the news projects thier information on maps is to show people the location of current events. These are just reference maps that give people vital information to where a crime has happened or a natural disaster. They are mostly jusy locational maps rather than projecting lots of information to the audience.

This map gives the location and area of affect of an earthquake in Washington state.

Virtual Nevada/ Las Vegas

The las vegas street view helps familiarize yourself with actual pictures of the area on google earth.


After using both google earth and Live, I noticed some small difference between the two. First in google Earth it was very easy to use and I was able to click on any street I wanted in Las Vegas and get a pretty clear picture of the area. This is a very useful thing because if I was trying to find a map of downtown las vegas some pictures of the land marks would be very helpful. If you just get a map then you are going by what it says and not what it show, if you use google earth you can get close up pictures of what the streets actually look like so when your down there everything will look familiar because you have seen it all before. The Live search was also a good tool but it did not have as good of a user interface as the google earth did.

My Top 5

5. Whistler Canada

4. Aspen Co.

3. The Matterhorn Switzerland

2. Anochorage Alaska

1. Himalayas

Whistler Canada is a place that I have known about for quite sometime now. I have always wanted to go to there. It is one of the worlds best places to sky with some of the best peaks to go off of. They get loads of snow every year and are open for many months out of the year, and in the center bowl or valley there is the small town of Whistler that is a nice ski town secluded deep in the mountains.

Aspen is #4 because it is a place I have actually been to very many time. I grew up in Colorado on the eastern slope and use to visit aspen all the time. It was a very small ski town that had mostly tourists in it but today has grown to be a pretty big town. It also is surrounded by ski resorts but the mountains arent as high as th Canadaian or Sierra mountains. Overall a very beautiful place.

#3 would have to be the matterhorn in Switzerland. I have never been there but I would love to hang glide off the top of it. It is a small mountain peak that is completly maed of rock and is located in the mifddle of the swiss alps were most of my family is from.

#2 would have to be Anochorage Alaska. I have always wanted to visit alaska. I they have very low annual tempratures and get allot of snow every year even though they are practilly at sea level. They also have the most number of planes and pilots than any other state in the U.S. because anything outside of the big city in alsak has to be flown in.

#1. would have to be the tallest mountains in the rodl, the Himalayas. I love the cold and mountains. So the largest one in the world are the number one place I want to visit. There are not very many towns in this area due to the extremly rough terrain but the peoplr you do find are very tough and rugged for the extreme conditions they live in.