“If you have been on social media this week, you have seen screenshots of this week’s CBS News broadcast on Syria, which in fact displayed a map of Iran. Many jokes were made, many tweets went viral. As connoisseurs of hilariously wrong TV news maps, this is nothing. Kids’ stuff. We have dug deep into our collection, gathered lovingly over the years, and now invite you to follow along on a tour of the world according to TV news.”

Source: static.nytimes.com

News organizations are in the business of prioritizing speed and accuracy, but sometimes those priorities come into conflict.  These are but a few of many examples of poor cartography in media.  While this isn’t all there is to geographic illiteracy, this is certainly one of the most obvious to the general public. If only there were the only element of geographic illiteracy in media coverage. 

 

Tags: cartography, media. 

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