How Google Maps is used in News & Media - Part 1

Media outlets, professional, and citizen journalists have discovered Google Maps and how it can be used to spotlight or illustrate issues as well as making a news story interactive. They have also been used to further enhance services directly on news and media websites. Others have created news maps from web-based news services such as Google News. In a multi-part series of posts I'll be showing you how Google Maps is being used on various news and media websites around the web. I'll close off this series by offering my own personal suggestions and observations for how this mapping technology could be further used in all types of media. Please feel free to contribute to this series by offering your comments and suggestions to these posts.

New maps (3):

WashingtonPost.com: Mapping US war casualties - Adrian Holovaty of ChicagoCrime.org fame took a job over at WashingtonPost.com as "Editor, Editorial Innovations" and he brought the Google Maps API with him. He has tipped me off on his first Google Maps creation since joining on: Faces of the Fallen is "a database of U.S. service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan." You can browse the map by soldiers' hometowns or by state. There is also an advanced search function that displays your search results on a Google Map.

Bowling Green Daily News: Mapping Yard Sales - This daily news pub is Google mapping the locations of yard sales in the community. The map gets updated "on Thursdays by 10:00 a.m. for the upcoming weekend". Here is an excellent article from Editor & Publisher about this map mashup.

New York Times (Travel): Mapping each travel column - The 36 Hours column in the New York Times "offers a weekend-long itinerary for a different North American city each week." They have mapped each of the columns from the past 3 years on this Google Map. Story photos appear, as well as a link to the archive of that story. [Via JustinSomnia.org]


Previously mentioned on Google Maps Mania (13):

The Daily News (Longview, Washington): Police Blotter/Crime Map - Plotting local crimes
Sacramento Bee: Crime & Liquor Stores - Mapping the issue of crimes committed close to stores selling alcohol.
Times Herald-Record (Hudson Valley, NY): Gas Price Watch - Mapping gas stations and current prices.
Times Herald-Record (Hudson Valley, NY): Mapping a car accident story - This story page includes an interactive map where you can view where the accident took place. Here is another example of a bear attack on a camper.
New York Times: Transit Strike Map - Mapping transit alternatives and stories from the strike. The map lives on to serve a greater purpose.
News & Observer (Raleigh, NC): Traffic Map - Mapping NCDOT's live traffic cameras.
Lawrence Journal-World (Kansas): Mapping venues - This story page maps the venues that are referred to.
Freelance Writer: Flood Maps - This map was created by a writer who was preparing a story about the global sea level rising. He couldn't find a map, so he created one himself! Read his blog post about it for more.
The Star-Ledger (New Jersey) : Killers going unpunished - This map plots locations of murders and convictions
Toronto Star: 2006 Homicide Map - Mapping the growing homicide rate in Toronto
Toronto Star: Traffic Map - Mapping the locations of traffic cameras in Toronto
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Mapping 2005 Homicides - Showing locations of 2005 homicides.

(More examples to come in Part 2..)

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