Through Map Hawk, Joe offers his opinion on how successfully various media outlets are using maps, mapping technology and location based data to communicate with readers. In some cases he congratulates, like in this post on the WSJ’s Hurricane Ike storm surge  maps. In others, he highlights ineffective or even misleading applications. Take his post on Inc. Magazine’s Impossible (To Read) Top 500 Map as and example.

Other interesting recent posts have covered the need to plan election strategy and show race coverage by ZIP Code; a review of the maps provided by the media for the Georgian conflict this summer; and a critic of PBS and USA Today’s coverage of the Arctic mapping mission announced by NOAA.

So next time you see a map on the evening news, in your favorite newspaper or online, check out Map Hawk to comment on it!

Several informative paragraphs about each map are provided and a devoted international readership offers engaging feedback and recommendations for new posts. If you are interested in strange yet creative uses of cartographic skills, this is the blog to read!