Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cartographic Design for Public Communication of Environmental Information

这一博士论文项目调查了大众媒体如何在关于环境问题的报道中设计和使用地图，以及地图设计的哪些方面促使地图读者在社交媒体上分享这些地图。科学家和科学传播者面临的挑战是让环境问题变得与广大受众相关、有形和易于理解。地图和其他图形是向公众传达这些问题的一种强有力的方式，因为地图可以帮助公众直观地了解影响以及缓解和适应战略。到目前为止，地图学领域几乎没有专门研究环境科学地图是如何制作、复制和在广泛的媒体、社交媒体和政府机构机构之间共享的。公开什么信息和如何公开之间的联系尚未得到很好的理解，但对环境缓解和适应努力具有广泛的科学和社会意义。这项研究的结果将直接与科学家和科学传播者分享，并有助于为设计供公众理解和传播的地图提供明确和可转让的指导方针，从而造福社会。地图被无处不在地用来说明环境变化。然而，地图学领域的研究很少集中于与地图传播环境变化相关的具体问题，这些问题涉及问题的复杂性、不确定性和多维性。此外，在制图研究界内，最近有一种努力将重点放在特定背景的地图和与社会和环境问题有关的地图上。本项目使用混合方法研究设计来回答四个广泛的问题：(1)美国哪些组织为公众设计环境变化地图？(2)评估这些地图的内容和地图设计时会得出什么模式？(3)环境变化地图制图者的沟通目标是什么？这些目标是如何反映在地图和设计决策中的？(4)地图设计的哪些方面增加了地图读者在社交媒体上分享这些地图的可能性？该项目整合了内容分析、访谈和调查方法，以审查与这些地图的制作地点和方式有关的模式，它们采用了什么内容和地图设计，如何做出设计决定以与广大受众沟通，以及环境变化地图的制图方面的哪些方面使地图读者能够更广泛地分享这些地图。将使用定性和统计分析来评估和综合这些结果。调查结果将为地图设计提供全面的评估，以便更好地传达环境变化。

This doctoral dissertation project investigates how maps have been designed and used by the mass media in stories about environmental issues, and what aspects of map design prompt map readers to share these maps on social media. Scientists and science communicators face the challenge of making environmental issues relatable, tangible, and understandable for a broad audience. Maps and other graphics are a powerful way of communicating such issues to the public as maps can help visualize impacts as well as mitigation and adaptation strategies to the public. To date there has been little specific research in cartography focused on how maps with environmental science are produced, reproduced, and shared across a wide range of media, social media, and government agency outlets. The connection between what information is made public, and how, is not well understood, yet has broad significance to science and society for environmental mitigation and adaptation efforts. The results of this research will be shared directly with scientists and science communicators and stands to benefit society by helping to provide clear and transferable guidelines for designing maps for public understanding and dissemination. Maps are used ubiquitously to illustrate environmental change. Few studies in cartography, however, have focused on the specific issues associated with cartographically communicating environmental change related to the complexity, uncertainty, and multi-dimensionality of the issues. Additionally, within the cartographic research community, there has been a recent push to focus on context-specific maps and on maps that matter for social and environmental issues. This project uses a mixed methods research design to answer four broad questions: (1) What organizations design environmental change maps for the public in the United States? (2) What patterns emerge from evaluating the content and cartographic design of these maps? (3) What are the communication goals of environmental change mapmakers and how are these goals reflected in the map and design decisions? (4) What aspects of cartographic design increase map readers' likelihood to share these maps on social media? The project integrates content analysis, interviews, and survey methods to examine patterns related to where and how these maps are produced, what content and cartographic design they employ, how design decisions are made for communicating to a wide audience, and what aspects of cartography of environmental change maps lead map readers to share these maps more broadly. Qualitative and statistical analysis will be used to assess and synthesize these results. Findings will provide a comprehensive assessment of cartographic design for better communicating environmental change.