Small Map Elements Matter

Before this class began, I had no idea that maps had the capacity “to lie.” I eventually learned that maps sometimes leave out certain aspects or distort size and scale. As we have learned over the past few classes, the ways maps “lie” have become increasingly more alarming; maps are sometimes created to serve a specific purpose, such as political propaganda for the Nazi government. Maps are created in the interests of the map creators. The Shari Motro article reveals more recent maps that have to do with a present global issue that everyone is familiar with: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The map that was presented in the Oslo II peace talks divided Palestinian territory into small sects and underemphasized the amount of land Israel would have under its control—all through choice of colors, labels, size, and scale. The small and slight choices on maps that I thought were insignificant during the first week of classes were extremely important in the international relations between these two conflicting countries and did not help to expedite the peace process between them. The lessons that I, as well as bigger entities like governments, can take away from the Swiss Cheese Map is to analyze maps more deeply and to not take small choices, such as color scheme and scale, for granted.