Now, I think it's great that this image is being passed around for the most part. But there's a lot going in terms of messaging through this act of 'sharing'. First, an unspoken goal would appear to be a humbling factor, reminding ourselves we're not as big and important as we might sometimes get ourselves worked up to be. Another aspect is a sense of creating a sense of togetherness through reminding ourselves that we are all part of one world.
The most crucial point I wanted to bring up brings me back to Adam and Chelsi's presentation on Monday about views and assumptions of Africa. As they pointed out, when most people see Africa or think of it, they think of a barren wilderness with starving kids, genocide and HIV. So, ultimately, what is this map trying to elicit from Western Society? I would venture to guess that most people, when looking at this, see how small these other countries look comparatively, and then conversely magnify the extremity of the atrocities they view in Africa as being that much more severe.
So what do you think was the underlying goal the producer had in creating this image? What are the pro's or con's in terms of pushing an image like this? What kinds of effects can you see coming from this?
With all that being said, I found a few other images similar to this one, though the sizing of the other continents overlaying Africa was slightly different in some ways. I'm sure you can take into account that it is hard to cut and past and keep everything accurately proportionate. With that in mind, how effective is it to try and show the "true size" of Africa when you're still using flat images? Or is the accuracy even important in terms of the overall message?
Other map of Africa size (1)
Other map of Africa size (2)
I've recently seen this on a Twitter account I follow called Amazing Maps- https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps. It is basically a collection of maps of all kinds. In addition to maps placing countries over each other for size comparisons, like Greenland over Australia, the maps adjust data as well. One of the more recent maps breaks the US and Canada's population out county by county to compare the with populations in European countries. So, Michigan turns out to be fairly comparable to Denmark, the range from Jersey south through Georgia along the coast turns out to be the same population of Poland and France coincides loosely with the areas between the Mississippi and the Rockies. The feed consists of many other maps of this kind.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at this map of Africa, I think it has the ability to highlight the differences in Africa. The very fact that Africa is big enough to encompass this range of countries with many different cultures, climates, and political situations, can show that what life in South Africa is like is different that what life in Liberia is like- just as Southern California and China are different. So for me, it highlights the diversity of realities instead of the severity of them.
Unfortunately, the usefulness of this map alone may end there. It doesn't help explain the differences between South Africa and Liberia, just shows the viewer that they probably should realize that the two places are different. However, this is a start to make sure that people who visit/read about Cape Town, Cairo, or other cities (of which Chelsi and Adam showed, among others) that they don't then know about Africa as a whole.
I also saw this map floating around Facebook. I think it is very interesting as it really does humble us (like Greg said above.). I would be interested to see a difference in populations, economic differences, etc. The map is really interesting, and it did teach me that Africa is a lot bigger than I thought, but I would want more information in order to assess exactly how big and populated Africa is.
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