A hurricane ravages part of southern Florida, and local newspaper reporters want to measure, analyze, and better understand the hidden reasons behind the damage. Population growth dramatically changes the census profile of a California county, and reporters want to dig beneath the numbers to find out what’s really happening. Lead poisoning threatens children in an East Coast city, and reporters and editors want to know where the harm is greatest, and why. In other parts of the United States, school busing, drunken driving, election balloting, property assessments, public housing, and mudslides are grist for news stories requiring the most in-depth reporting possible.

Though far-flung and separated by many miles, the news reporters, editors, and graphic artists who worked on these stories all relied on geographic information systems (GIS), an important technology for mapping and reporting the news. For years, industries, governments, environmental groups, utilities, and others have used ESRI® GIS software to work more efficiently and make better decisions. The move to GIS has been somewhat slower in news reporting, but in the last ten years or so, increasing numbers of newsrooms across the country have been adopting this powerful technology.

Mapping the News: Case Studies in GIS and Journalism shows how GIS and computer-assisted reporting are revolutionizing the news business. Packed with full-color illustrations, maps, and other graphics that help describe the ten case studies, the book also contains an introduction to GIS and how it works. Two detailed appendixes can help journalists immediately get started with GIS and also learn how to acquire free data to aid in news gathering and information analysis. Taken together, the case-study examples and resources in Mapping the News make the volume an important guide for newsroom managers, journalists, and student journalists who want to enhance their reporting abilities and strengthen their competitive edge.

“Mapping the News is more than a how-to for journalists interested in GIS—it’s a convincing why-to. The well-illustrated case studies described by author David Herzog show the power of GIS applied to a range of compelling stories on disasters, elections, taxation, toxic waste, drunken driving, and other issues important to readers. For those ready to move beyond reporting anecdotes into analyzing data, this book is a great introduction to a powerful new tool.”

Stephen K. Doig
Knight Chair in Journalism
Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University, Tempe

About the author:

David Herzog, a former investigative reporter for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, and academic adviser to the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR), a joint program of the school and Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE).