ABSTRACT

Maps are a key way to communicate climate change. The goal of these maps is to make climate change relatable, tangible, and understandable. However, little research has assessed the content of these maps and the aspects of these maps which attract readers, reduce complexity, and make climate change tangible. One way to evaluate maps of climate change is through the concept of vividness, a term from the communication literature. This article examines the content and vividness of maps of climate change to answer the following: which media organizations publish these maps? What is the design and content of these maps? Did these maps convey climate change vividly? Using content analysis and multidimensional scaling (nMDS) this research showed that producers of climate change maps are often not the publishers of this same content. These maps primarily showed topics which were relevant to audiences in the United States. There was a wide variety of different cartographic designs used. And finally, maps were vivid when they employed the eight aspects of vividness presented in this paper: legend design, symbolization, layout, projections which were appropriate for the data, visual salience, visible change over time, color use which aligned with color connotations, and novel design styles.

摘要

地图是传达气候变化的关键方法。这些地图的目的是使气候变化具有相关性，切实性和可理解性。但是，很少有研究评估这些地图的内容以及这些地图吸引读者，降低复杂性并使气候变化切实的方面。评价气候变化图的一种方法是通过生动的概念，来自传播文学的术语。本文研究了气候变化地图的内容和生动性，以回答以下问题：哪些媒体组织发布了这些地图？这些地图的设计和内容是什么？这些地图生动地传达了气候变化吗？使用内容分析和多维比例尺（nMDS），这项研究表明，气候变化图的生产者通常不是同一内容的发布者。这些地图主要显示与美国观众相关的主题。使用了多种不同的制图设计。最后，地图运用了本文介绍的生动性的八个方面时，就变得生动起来：图例设计，符号化，布局，适合数据的投影，视觉显着性，随时间变化的可见性，