Comments on: 242 - Nearer the North: Australia in the King Projection

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:49:30 +0000

I took it upon myself to SAS/Graph software and create some maps similar to the ones on CNN, but with more topologically correct (size & position) land masses:

Here’s one similar to the one in this story:

http://robslink.com/SAS/democd28/dotmap.htm

And here’s one similar to another famous CNN background map:

http://robslink.com/SAS/democd28/cnn.htm

I’m happy to share the code, if anyone wants it …

http://robslink.com/SAS/democd28/aaaindex.htm

By: Cudzoziemiec

Cudzoziemiec — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:34:15 +0000

isn’t the point also that it shows the “important” places - the places where, perchance, the show can be run? Thus Africa can be hidden, but Australia not.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:09:02 +0000

The problem here lies not with the map, but with the audience. Of course cartophiles would assume that the backdrop is meant to be either a complete world map or a series of continental maps. That’s pretty clearly not the case, however. The set is meant to reinforce the idea that the show is worldwide in scope. It’s a better design choice in this case to place the continents as closely as possible to their relative locations while not giving up size than to project an accurate world map at the expense of aesthetic concerns. In this case an accurate world map would be compressed in the center of the set, leaving vast swaths of negative space on the edges. King and his guests would obscure most of the map, unless it was crammed into the tiny space between them. It’s a sound decision to simply invoke the continents with symbols much less concrete than those found on actual maps.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:59:18 +0000

Heh. It reminds me of The Day Today; “It’s War! I’m here on the Austro-Japan border…”

By: -30-

-30- — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:37:32 +0000

Fascinating. I’d never noticed this. But then, I rarely watch Larry King.

By: Pieter

Pieter — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:43:51 +0000

Another example of buggy worldmaps in TV-programs can be found here: http://www.nrc.nl/multimedia/archive/00079/De_kijkers_vasthoud_79813a.jpeg or here: http://www.bvn.nl/images/assets/12758117

In the popular Dutch daily talkshow ‘De wereld draait door’ this background is also bugging me. Australia is glued to Asia. The Mediterranean Sea is just rectangular. The Caribean is completely ignored and what’s up with that only bulb between Greenland and Europe? Is it representing Iceland or Great Britain?

By: ozymandiaz

ozymandiaz — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:12:55 +0000

Any reality squeezed between those two is likely to be distorted

By: Jason W

Jason W — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:58:24 +0000

Amazingly, the fake news show has a more accurate map than the real one (if you can call Larry King “news”):

http://goupstate.us/UserFiles/Image/SNL.jpg

By: David

David — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:05:49 +0000

I never could watch Larry King. Not because I don’t agree with CNN’s political stance (I’m more of a “liberal pinko commie” myself anyways, so I enjoy CNN ) but because the map has ALWAYS bugged me, so much so that I pay more attention to it than the program. Even realizing that it’s just a “scroll of continents” as @Aaron nicely put it, there’s still lots of inaccuracies on the continental maps themselves.

By: Tom Veil

Tom Veil — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:55:56 +0000

where’s japan?