Reflection on Motro Article (Lena Lee)

I was genuinely surprised to read about just how important maps were. I thought only about the information it gave to people who wanted to go to places, not about how the presentation of maps could make or break political, cultural, economical deals between nations. Still, I find it hard to believe that maps are so much more powerful than I assumed. The audience who will be looking at the map and the background of the audience (ex. Nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.) should definitely change the way a map is drawn and presented. The example that surprised me the most was how the use of color red might change the way a certain group of people viewed the map. Red has connotation of danger, blood and aggression. I just thought that mapmakers would pick out a random color scheme and that it wouldn’t matter at all. But this article showed that littlest details could make the difference between peace-making agreement and war.