Negative aspects...
After outlining all the positive aspects of using image maps within Online Journalism, there are of course some downsides to image maps and visual information in general. Generally, it is important to try and convey information by different means of communication - not just visually or interactively.
Working with images and image maps forces the journalist to restrict the information contained to a format and amount that can easily be included in an image map and does not require that much background and depth.
If we have another look at the
image map of Iraq that illustrates different aspects about different locations in Iraq,it becomes clear that this interactive image map is a useful tool to add information to an user's knowledge and to show spatial aspects, but would not be helpful without in-depth background readings about the issue related to the situation in Iraq. Therefore,image maps and interactives should be add-ons to existing information, rather than the sole source of information.
Why Image Maps?
As we can see in the examples posted below, image maps are mainly used for topics and issues related to space within Online Journalism. They are therefore important additional tools for relating information to the audience – we have already learnt that people read and perceive information and texts on the screen differently from print.
In details, that means:
- They read slower
-They have a reduced attention span
- Reduced loyalty
Thus, Online Journalists have to offer information that is organized in a way that is appropriate for an online audience – make the text scannable, shorter and more concise, and add visual interactivity and more choices to the text in order to make most use of the online medium and to attract audiences using their websites.
One of these tools are Image Maps – they clarify locations, distances and processes related to time or space whilst providing additional textual information and offering the recipient individual choices about what to click/chose next. By this, they enable the recipient of information to not simply be a “recipient”, but a “user” – to put his or her own focus on the information obtained, which is a general characteristic of the internet that has often also been claimed as its advantage: freedom of choice and user-control.
In conclusion, Image Maps are a means to live up to the expected freedom to individual choice propagated within the spheres of the internet, as they offer users to actually “use” them and determine which information to access. Additionally of course, they work as a tool to illustrate information more efficiently on screen and help the user to grasp any issues more easily and memorably than by just reading a text online – which, as we have learnt, is more difficult to understand online than in print format.
For example, this map of
How the Bird Flu has spread not only allows the user to only view some of the spatial information (depending on whether you tick “Bird Flu Outbreaks”, “Human Cases” or “Bird migration zones”) in relation to the temporal information (time-line from Jan 2004 to Jan 2006), but also helps to understand the impact of the issue more efficiently than by just a text explaining the same.
Since one aspect, especially with the Bird Flu, is always how a topic relates to the users themselves, it illustrates the impact and closeness of the disease better than a text talking about an outbreak in Thailand then and then. Users are also able to immediately work with this visual information and it is therefore easier to understand than a coherent text.
Image Map Basics
When trying to find information and examples related to Image Maps as an aspect of Online Journalism, it was quite hard to determine what exactly Image Maps are (and what they are not) – where does the simple image map end and the clickable interactive start, for example?
To a certain extent, most image maps are clickable interactives, but not all clickable interactives are image maps (they could be narrated slideshows for example).
In terms of a very basic technical definition, image maps are generated by applying so-called hotspots on a certain image (which involves assigning coordinates to the image area you want to link from) and allowing to generate new content (a pop-up, opening a new site or frame) related to the area of the image clicked. You can find a short introduction to simple image map construction on
this site, or alternatively work through Dreamweaver.
A very basic example to illustrate the original purpose of image maps for navigation – as a visual menu to link within a website – is used at
Totalnews. Similar to that,
NewsVoyager uses the image map of the US to link through to an extended menu of the specific local newspapers, rather than a list of the US States.
Online Journalism uses this technique in a different way – images not to link to different content, but to generate additional information about the topic related to the image - an example of which is this
map of Iraq illustrating the locations of journalists in Iraq in 2003. When clicking on the figure symbols, a list of journalists working in that area is generated.
Another example of using image maps for adding information to an online visual, is
this Iraq map that provides facts and figures about the chosen (clicked) area of the map.
I hope this explains the origins and basics of image maps – more on different types of image maps, the pros and cons and the general philosophy of image maps in the next post…
