Mapping the News in the Media Tell Data-Driven Stories with Maps By Carla Wheeler, Esri Writer

Online media outlets in the Netherlands, including BNR Nieuwsradio, Doorn gave an interview about what the , and , illustrate news stories using maps maps showed about the voting trends such created with Esri technology, turning data into meaningful information that as the losses by the Labour Party and the gains by the Christian Democrats and the helps readers get a clearer and deeper perspective of events and issues. Democrats 66 party. Esri Nederland also used Operations Esri Nederland B.V., Esri’s distributor in Netherlands on March 18, 2015, there Dashboard for ArcGIS to provide the media the Netherlands, works closely with BNR were more than one million views of Esri with a dashboard to monitor the election Nieuwsradio, a radio station and online election-related maps in the media. The results from their offices. The dashboard publication that covers economic, political, election maps were published on the BNR included a map and widgets in the form sports, and technology news, to analyze Nieuwsradio website and in many media of bar charts and gauges. One gauge kept and visualize data and then produce maps outlets, including the daily newspapers a running tab on how many municipalities for BNR Nieuwsradio’s website. For exam- Trouw and (AD). The were reporting election results, while a bar ple, data was mapped for stories about maps, created using ArcGIS, were also chart showed which parties were winning the provincial elections in the Netherlands, published on the website of the Dutch tel- the election. Another widget indicated the European Parliament elections, the Ebola evision station RTL. percentage of voter turnout. virus crisis in Africa, bird flu outbreaks in The media used the maps to provide the Netherlands, and 2014 World Cup election results and compare the percent- Digging Deeper into the Soccer matches in Brazil. Staff from Esri age of voter turnout to that of the 2011 elec- Political Data Nederland occasionally provide commen- tion. Esri Nederland teamed up with ANP, After the elections, Esri Nederland con- tary about what the maps show during the Netherlands national news agency, to ducted several geographic analyses to de- radio broadcasts. provide live election result updates, using termine how a spate of recent earthquakes According to Harmen van Doorn, a com- maps that showed which parties were gain- in province affected the elec- munications specialist at Esri Nederland, ing votes and which were losing votes in tion results. the Dutch media is discovering that maps each of the 12 provinces. The number of earthquakes in Groningen offer a great way to communicate informa- The map service was published on the province has increased in the last few years tion to readers and viewers. Though the BNR Nieuwsradio website on election due to gas extraction in that region, van company provides maps to the media for night and the morning after, when van Doorn said. The people there are angry with important news stories, journalists have the opportunity to tap into the power of geog-  Esri Nederland B.V. provided with live maps of the provincial election raphy themselves. They can learn to use the BNR Nieuwsradio results that staff could use in the newsroom while on air. Esri ArcGIS platform and turn raw data into maps for the stories they are pursuing. The audience is very interested in the maps said Thijs Baas, web editor at BNR Nieuwsradio. “The maps make the national news more meaningful to people, helping them to answer questions such as, What do the election results mean to me and my community?” Baas said. “A visualization creates an image. People think in images, and we see that reflected in the statistics on our website. When we have a map on our website where you can see the impact of the national news on your own commu- nity, the readership for the story increases.” During the provincial elections in the

68 au Summer 2015 esri.com End Notes

 Media in the Netherlands used Esri’s Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS to monitor the results of the country’s recent provincial election. Widgets on the dashboard showed the number of municipalities reporting election results, the winning parties, and the percentage of voter turnout.

 Harmen van Doorn of Esri Nederland B.V. was interviewed by BNR Nieuwsradio about the election result trends that the maps showed.

the government, and the Labour Party, which greatest density of cameras and routes is normally popular in that province, lost where drivers are most likely to get caught many votes in all Groningen counties, he said. for speeding. Another trend the maps revealed was Maps also have been used to tell sports that people in the Christian region (known stories. Esri Nederland used the Esri Story as the Netherlands’ Bible Belt), who live in a Map Journal template to make the On the corridor that runs from the southwest to the Road to Success in Brazil story map, which Be Credible! north in the middle of the country, vote in last year documented the triumphs and higher percentages than the people living defeats of Oranje, the national soccer team in other regions. This map showed that two from the Netherlands. parties—the ChristianUnion (CU) and the Spell check your maps with... Reformed Political Party (SGP)—did par- Open Data and Privacy Concerns ticularly well in the Christian region during Esri Nederland and BNR Nieuwsradio are the 2015 election. also partnering on other data visualization projects related to weather and earthquake Beyond Election Results reporting. Esri Nederland is also mapping data for “Society profits from having a geo- the media that pertains to topics other graphic view,” said Sjors Fröhlich, editor than the elections, including the bird flu in chief of BNR Nieuwsradio, during the outbreaks in the Netherlands, the economy, Esri GIS Conference in the Netherlands in and even where in the country Dutch driv- 2014. “GIS users can be generous with shar- ers are most likely to get speeding tickets. ing data. You are sitting on gold—so much Drivers use the Flitsmeister app to useful information.” U.S. Patent No. 7,681,126 Esri trademarks provided under license from Esri report the location of flitsers—cameras But Fröhlich knows that making data that record the speed of cars and their public can conflict with privacy policies that license plate numbers if they go over the are important in the Netherlands. “But we “What a useful tool!” speed limit. Esri Nederland and BNR can do beautiful and useful work with data Nieuwsradio mapped the highway loca- by visualizing it and doing research on it,” 888-334-3832 tions in the Netherlands where the chances Fröhlich said. “The data can clear up things www.Edgetech-US.com are greatest that drivers will be ticketed and sometimes prompt the government to Edgetech America, Inc. for speeding. This Esri Story Map Journal take needed actions. Society will benefit by An Esri partner since 1995 shows which sections of highways have the making data public, I am sure.”

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