Geography and the Media: Strengthening the Relationship

Geography and the Media:
Strengthening the Relationship

Professor Barry Wellar, PhD
Department of Geography
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5
wellarb@uottawa.ca

Abstract*

The use and portrayal of geography by the media is an integral part of any discussion of the
subject’s image in the public domain. It is seen most clearly at times of natural disaster like the
Montreal icestorm, the firestorm in Kelowna and Kamloops, the Peterborough flood, the
Vancouver mudslide, and most recently the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Not to be overlooked,
however, are the portraits of places that the media provide viewers and listeners, either as
background to news or as feature programs.

Do the media know where to turn in the geographic community for sources of reliable and
current knowledge that go beyond the descriptive? How does the geographic community see its
work being used and its image projected in the public domain? Has it done as much as it might
to project its work in the public domain? What would the media expect from an organization
that was seeking to do so? How can the media and geographic community inform each other?
How could geographers be helped to deal more effectively with events like the Montreal ice
storm that are seared in the public mind as experiences and yet beg wider understanding?

This contribution to the Symposium on Projecting Geography in the Public Domain in Canada
begins by presenting a series of graphics and comments as context for responses to the questions
posed by Symposium organizers. The presentation then demonstrates that while the geographic
community has experienced a number of successes in regard to media coverage, much remains to
be done to build and maintain a geography-media relationship whereby geography is accorded its
full measure of regard in all the media – print, radio, television, Internet – which project our
work in the public domain in Canada.

The first two paragraphs of the abstract were prepared by the Symposium organizers, and
*

served as the terms of reference for the presentation.

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I. A Context for the Questions on Geography and
the Media: Strengthening the Relationship
Each of the questions prepared by Symposium organizers is open-ended and wide-ranging in
scope, and has the potential to generate a variety of perspectives and opinions on how to (better)
project geography in the media slice of the public domain in Canada.

Further, it was quickly realized when reviewing the assignment that there is an element of ‘it
depends’ associated with each question. By way of illustration, suggesting how to raise the
profile of geography in the media depends on knowing what has already been done. Identifying
ways to bridge gaps and create new linkages depends on how well both parties understand what
one has to offer and the other needs. Then, assessing how well geography has performed in
projecting its work in the public domain first depends on the criteria used to grade the effort, and
then upon the rigor applied in judging the performance.

Moreover, examining the relationship between geography and the media requires that we be
open to all “ways of knowing”. That is, while there is an emphasis on the scientific way of
knowing in the field of geography, emphasis in the media may more often be placed on intuition
or ‘gut feeling’, revelation, common sense-everyday experience, or authority. As a result, it is
necessary that the presentation respect and accommodate all the different ways of knowing and,
by extension, the different ways of thinking and doing in geography and in the media.

For reasons related to the nature of the questions, the ‘it depends’ feature of the questions, and
the different ways of knowing that apply to projecting geography into and through the media, it
would be imprudent to rush into the response mode. That is, in order to ground the responses so
that they are not seen to be “floating in mid-air”, a context is needed in which to consider both
the questions raised and the responses.

Indeed, to be truly useful, the context needs to begin at the beginning and accommodate
the most fundamental question:

“Why would or should the media have an interest
in geography or the geographical community?”

A selection of slides has been prepared to respond to this why question. Drawing on the principle
that a picture is worth a thousand words, the graphics serve a two-fold purpose. First, they are an
efficient means of overviewing the presentation. Second, they can be readily amended to deal
with suggestions from symposium organizers, from Peter Desbarats (the session’s designated
respondent), as well as from session attendees.

In the interests of facilitating the presentation and discussion, a brief, overview-type comment is
made about each slide. It is emphasized that these are indicative comments about the slides.
Readers interested in reading more detailed accounts of the slide materials are invited to contact
the author for references.

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Figure 1. Geography, the Media, and the Pursuit and Application of Data, Information and
Knowledge (1): Components. Figure 1 identifies the building blocks of the presentation at a
general level.

Knowledge (2): Connections. The addition of arrows to connect the building blocks represents
the design/proposal challenge to this assignment. This graphic also represents the
operational/implementation challenges facing the geographic community. In brief, making those
connections is a necessary condition if we are to succeed in our effort to significantly strengthen
the geography-media relationship.

Knowledge (3): The Typology of Stories. This graphic illustrates that at even a general level,
there are many varieties of stories to be told by the media. Figure 3 also effectively demonstrates
however, following the principles of sets, that among all those potential types of stories, those
making the connection among three and four of the components are at the core of a strengthened
geography-media relationship.

Figure 4. The Data-Information-Knowledge Transform Process: Simple Model. This flow
diagram is included to make explicit that in this presentation data, information and knowledge
are not interchangeable parts, that knowledge does not just magically ‘emerge from the ether’,
and that (non-trivial) knowledge is a derived product resulting from methodologically-designed
inquiry.

Table 1. Terms and Concepts That Underlie the Work of the Geographic Community, and
Indicate the Potential for Projecting Geography in the Public Domain. There is a vocabulary in
and of geography that needs to be made known to members of the media community. The terms
and concepts selected for inclusion in list compiled for Table I are among those which are in
both the curiosity-driven and client-driven domains of the geography community, and are used in
various fields of geography. Many of the entries are also part of society’s everyday language,
and inspection reveals that many of these terms and concepts are included explicitly or implicitly
in many media stories. The problem, however, is that the geography behind the terms and
concepts too often seems to ‘get lost in translation’, is overlooked, or is ignored.

Table 2. Types of Literature Pertinent to a Discussion of Geography, the Media, and Projecting
Geography in the Public Domain. One of the primary ways of projecting geography in the public
domain is through “the literature”. It is therefore imperative that we appreciate the many
different kinds of literature that there are in the public domain. Table 2 provides a partial list of
literatures in which to project the curiosity-driven, client-driven, and other work of the
geographic community.

Table 3. An Elaboration of the “The Media” by Unbundling the Phrase “Popular Literature”.
Members of the geographic community may have different perceptions of “the media”. Table 3
indicates how the media are perceived and characterized for the purposes of this presentation.

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These introductory remarks should be sufficient to establish a rationale for including the figures
and tables in the context part of the presentation. More importantly, however, it is hoped that the
remarks and graphics combine to serve two vital functions.

First, the graphics and remarks will perform as hoped if they succeed in disabusing readers of the
notion that dealing with any of the questions involves an easy fix, or that any of the questions
can be successfully addressed without regard for the other questions. This regard for respecting
the difficulty of the task is based on numerous reports acknowledging that the failure of
enterprises similar to Projecting Geography in the Public domain in Canada was frequently due
to greatly underestimating the difficulty of non-trivial tasks.

Second, during the initial phase of the assignment I had discussions with members of both the
geographic and media communities. The topic of discussion was to learn whether this kind of
project had a known precedent and, if not, what advice they could offer. The overall response
was no known precedent, and no advice other than to prepare a modular presentation that could
be modified to accommodate new people and ideas as the geography-media relationship
“gelled”. The remarks and graphics that follow will perform as hoped in this regard if they
induce readers to suggest better ways of introducing the assignment, and of promoting a joint
geographic community-media community effort to strengthen the geography-media relationship.

As a final context comment, the topic Geography and the Media is related to all the other
Symposium session topics. As a result, suggestions are invited on how to modify the context of
this presentation in order to reflect the interests represented in the other sessions.

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Figure 1.
Geography, the Media, and the Pursuit and Application of
Data, Information and Knowledge (1): Components

GEOGRAPHY
Human
Physical
Methodology
Technology

CLIENT-DRIVEN
CURIOSITY-DRIVEN DATA, INFORMATION,
DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE ACTIVITIES
KNOWLEDGE ACTIVITIES
Impact Assessment
Prescription
Description
Forecasting
Explanation
Evaluation
Prediction
Design
MEDIA

Print
Radio
Television
Internet

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Figure 2.
Geography, the Media, and the Pursuit and Application of
Data, Information and Knowledge (2): Connections

GEOGRAPHY
Human
Physical
Methodology
Technology

CLIENT-DRIVEN
CURIOSITY-DRIVEN
DATA, INFORMATION,
DATA, INFORMATION,
Impact Assessment
Prescription
Description
Forecasting
Explanation
Evaluation
Prediction
Design

MEDIA

Print
Radio
Television
Internet

7

Figure 3.
Geography, the Media, and the Pursuit and Application of Data,
Information and Knowledge (3): The Typology of Stories

GEOGRAPHY
Human
Physical
Methodology
Technology

CLIENT-DRIVEN
DATA, INFORMATION,
CURIOSITY-DRIVEN
DATA, INFORMATION,
KNOWLEDGE ACTIVITIES Impact Assessment
Prescription
Description
Forecasting
Explanation
Evaluation
Prediction
Design

MEDIA
Print
Radio
Television
Internet

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Figure 4.
The Data-Information-Knowledge
Transform Process: Simple Model

States

Existing Preferred
Data Information Knowledge
Reality Reality

Transforms

This schematic and variations of this schematic have been displayed in numerous GIS-type
publications and conference slides for more than 30 years, and the data/information/knowledge
(DIK) transforms have been in the literature for many centuries. As a result, that aspect of Figure
4 is not discussed here.

One feature of the schematic that requires comment, however, is the meaning attached in this
presentation to the “States” referred to as “Existing Reality” and “Preferred Reality”.

Recalling the contents of Figures 1, 2, and 3, and looking ahead to the figures, tables and
discussion to follow, the ‘realities of interest’ to this presentation include: state of science; state
of media reportage; state of the geographic community; state of communications between the
geographic and media communities; state of the world; state of urban development; state of
energy supply and consumption; state of accessibility for the disabled; state of water resources in
Western Canada; state of the offshore fisheries; state of the ozone layer; state of forests and
farming by type and area; and, state of transportation. In other words, anything that falls within
the rubrics of curiosity-driven research, client-driven research, geography, or the media could
likely be characterized as a “state” subject to the DIK transform process.

Many of the terms and concepts listed in Table 1 are used to describe the kinds of realities noted
above, to explain various kinds of cause-effect, producer-product, or correlational relationships,
to predict the outcomes of natural and human-induced events and processes. Further, they are
used in design, forecasting, prescriptive, evaluation, and impact assessment studies that seek to
achieve convergence between what is and what should be on matters of interest to individuals,
groups, and public and private institutions. Figure 4, although a simple model, has the capacity to
put all the states of interest in perspective, and contributes to organizing our thoughts on the
various aspects of the geography-media relationship.

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Table 1.
Terms and Concepts That Underlie the Work of the Geographic Community,
and Indicate the Potential for Projecting Geography in the Public Domain
through Media Stories

Accessible (ity) Dimension Land Polygon(al)
Adjacent(cy) Disperse(ion) Landscape Proximity
Agglomerate (ion) Distance Latitude Quadrangle
Aggregate(ion) Distribution Line Quadrant
Along(side) Edge Link Region
Amalgamate(ion) Effect Locality Relation(ship)
Anywhere Elevation Location Right-of-way
Arc Encroach(ment) Local(ization) Route
Area(polygon) Environment Longitude Rural
Around Everywhere Map Scale
Association Extrusion Margin(al) Segregate(ion)
Block Far Meridian Shape
Border Field Migration Shed
Boundary Fjord Morphology Site
Buffer Flow(s) Movement Situation
Cause(al/ity) Form Nation(al/ization) Slope
Center Fringe Near(ness) Somewhere
Centrality Function(al/ity) Neighbor Space
Circle Geocode Network Spatial
Close(ness) Geodetic NIMBY Sphere
Clump Geofactor Node Sprawl
Cluster Geographic Nowhere Spread
Coastal Geomatic Object Strip
Commutershed Geometric Orientation Structure
Compact(ness) Geopolitical Origin Surface
Concentrate(ion) Georeference Overlay System
Concentric Geospatial Parcel Territory
Congestion GIS/GISc Partition Topographic
Connect (ion/ivity) Global(ization) Path Topology(ic)
Contiguous Grid Pattern Urban(ex/sub)
Continent(al) Gridlock Pedshed Vector
Conurbation Habitat Perimeter Walkshed
Coordinates Hinterland Periphery Ward
Core Interaction Place Warren
Correlation Intersection Plain Watershed
Countryside Intrusion Plane Where
Density Island Point YIMBY
Diffusion Isolate(ion) Pole(ar/ity) Zone

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Table 2.
Types of Literature Pertinent to a Discussion of Geography, the
Media, and Projecting Geography in the Public Domain

1. Learned Literature (including journals, proceedings, books, monographs, position
papers, glossaries, videos, dissertations, theses) is published under the auspices of
scholarly societies and their member disciplines. These works add to knowledge,
add to ways and means of continuing to add to knowledge, employ
methodologically rigorous procedures of inquiry which can be externally
examined and validated, and are subject to a peer review process.
2. Popular Literature (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, Internet, and any
other means of communicating with a population.)
3. Corporate/Institutional-Public Literature (constitutions, accords, authorizations,
manifestos, addresses, manuals, agreements, maps, files, tapes, images, …
produced by governments and government agencies at all levels, crown
corporations…)
4. Corporate/Institutional-Private Literature (papers, certificates, deeds, permits,
prospectuses, IPOs, letters of intent, maps, files, tapes, images, … produced by
businesses and associated enterprises.)
5. Legal Literature (legislation, charters, statutes, Acts, …produced for and by court
and court-associated bodies.)
6. Regulatory Literature (by-laws, rules of conduct, procedural manuals, etc.,
produced by and for various public and private agencies/enterprises.)
7. Professional Group Literature (any of the above or other kinds of literature
distributed by organizations whose members are licensed and certified as RPP,
CPUQ, MCIP, AICP, GISP, CPA, CMA, MD, DDS, OLS, RN, P.Eng., LLB,
OAA, and the list goes on.)
8. Public Interest Group Literature (any of the above or other kinds of literature
distributed by organizations whose members are not privileged beneficiaries of
group activities, including the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, Center for
Sustainable Transportation, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, community associations,
Greenpeace, Council of Canadians, Capital Bike and Walk Society, etc.)
9. Vested/Special Interest Group Literature (any of the above or other kinds of
literature, including advertising and promotional materials, distributed by
organizations whose members are privileged beneficiaries of group activities,
frequently in monetary terms. Illustrative organizations in this category of
literature production are the Canadian Automobile Association, Canadian
Association of University Teachers, Canadian Association of Public
Administrators, Mining Association of Canada, Urban Development Institute,
Canadian Chamber of Commerce, ratepayer groups, business improvement
associations, political parties, unions, OPEC, NHLPA, The Ottawa Partnership,
The Toronto Board of Trade, the Forest Products Association of Canada….)

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Table 3.
An Elaboration of “The Media” by
Unbundling the Phrase “Popular Literature”

1. Newspapers
a. Daily (national, regional, local)
b. Weekly (community, commercial)
c. Bi-weekly (community, commercial)
d. Monthly (community, commercial)
2. Magazines
a. National
b. Regional
c. Local
3. Newsletters
a. Public interest group (national, regional, local)
b. Vested interest group (national, regional, local)
4. Radio
a. National (public, private)
b. Regional ( public, private)
c. Local (public, private)
5. Television
a. National (public, private)
b. Regional (public, private)
c. Local (public, private)
6. Internet
a. Websites (commercial, educational, government, networking
organizations, ….)
b. Mail lists (all the groups covered by the entries in Table 3, any
individuals wishing to form or join a group to share opinions,
materials, ….)

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II. Responses to the Questions
In preparing the responses to the questions posed by the symposium organizers, I did not have
the benefit of first reviewing the materials prepared by the other presenters. It is anticipated that
if schedules do not allow for exchanging materials and making modifications prior to meeting in
London, then it may be possible to make connections among the sessions at the symposium,

Q1. Do the media know where to turn in the geographic community for sources
of reliable and current knowledge that go beyond the descriptive?
In many cases they do, particularly if the story has a legacy of media-geography engagement, if
the media person handling the story is well connected to the geographic community, or if
universities and colleges have media relations units that ‘promote’ the interests and work of the
geographic community.

Increasingly, however, it seems that members of the media, and especially the more tech-
oriented members, are making contact with geography and geographers through web pages and
electronic mail.

In brief, searching (or scanning) web pages is perceived as an efficient (time and money) means
of learning about who is doing what in any field of inquiry, and especially if keyword-based
searches/scans are possible. Searches/scans by topical fields, regions or localities, as well as by
gender, culture, socio-economic attribute, etc., are very popular, and can create the impression
that the searches/scans are effectively delving into “… sources of reliable and current
knowledge that go beyond the descriptive”.

Unfortunately, if either the searches/scans or the materials located are limited to the basic 4W
questions, that is, who, what, where and when, and do not get into why and how questions and
answers, then the response to Q1 is “No”. That is, rather than producing stories that reflect the
knowledge of the geographic community, and our ability to explain relationships and make
predictions in a methodologically robust manner, the more likely product is ‘tabloid journalism’
or shallow pieces of work that do not substantively project geography in the public domain in
Canada.

The advisory in this regard, therefore, is that “dumping” geographic materials onto the web will
not turn the response to Q1 into a “Yes”. As experience to date has demonstrated, the garbage in-
garbage out problem enunciated some 35 years ago has not been solved by wide-but-shallow
cataloguing exercises via the Internet, regardless of how fast the materials can be assembled.
Instead, the “trivia in-trivia out” malaise has depreciated the performance of the “information
highway”.

Fortunately, there are many web-using, non-geographers who are very “plugged in” to the
geography community. Moreover, in my experience, they share an important research trait. That
is, these members of the media, as well as lawyers, engineers, politicians, economists, etc., base
their searches/scans on combinations of geographic terms, such as those listed in Figures 1 and 3,

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and Table 1. The questions of why and how are incorporated in the searches, and the subsequent
stories and reports reflect a serious appreciation of the importance of geography to the issue of
interest.

As for the utility of electronic mail, and most notably mailing lists, many journalists, columnists,
editorialists and media researchers are serious users of this Internet service. A dozen keystrokes
are often sufficient to post data/information/knowledge requests, and to gain access to a variety
of sources (people and various catalogues) on who is conducting research on what topic, and
who to contact in the search for reliable and current knowledge that goes beyond the descriptive.

Those positive observations notwithstanding, however, much remains to be done to better inform
the media about which members of the geographic community are engaged in which kind(s) of
knowledge-producing activities, and where this knowledge is located in the “literature”.

The work-to-be-done topic is re-visited in the responses to Questions 3 and 5. As discussed,
there can be great differences between what geographers have to offer by way of journal articles,
conference papers, research reports, lab experiments, etc., and what the media wants for a print,
radio, television or Internet story.

Q2. How does the geographic community see its work being used and its image
projected in the public domain?

It needs to be emphasized and made explicit that this presentation is limited to the media ‘slice’
of the public domain. As a result, the response to Q2 deals only with how our work is used by the
media, and how our image is projected by the media.†

Further, a comprehensive, detailed response to Q2 would have regard for all the Figures
presented in Part I (Context), and the materials contained in the response to Q1. However, a
discussion of that nature is beyond the scope of this assignment.

What is appropriate at this time, for both resource and operational reasons, is to begin the process
of assembling a body of evidence that documents how our work has actually been used by the
media. Then, to the extent that the image which is projected by the media can be deciphered,
interpretive comments could be included.

Once that process has been initiated, and additional materials accumulated, then the geography
community will have an increasingly larger fact base at its disposal. And, the more that fact base
is broadened and deepened, the better the geography community will be positioned for its
discourse on how the issues and possibilities raised in the Geography and the Media session

†
A major challenge for symposium organizers will be to make the connections among the issues and possibilities
raised in the Geography and the Media session and those raised in all the other sessions: Geography, Universities,
and Colleges; Geography, Politics, and Government; Geography, Business, and Industry; Geography and Schools.
A central objective of this presentation, therefore, is to include methodological foundations that could assist in
identifying measures to strengthen the ways in which geography is projected in the media in particular and across
Canada in general.

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affect the measures that might be taken to strengthen the ways in which geography is projected in
the public domain in Canada.

Indeed, if we are persuasive in our arguments about the importance of this topic, then the
geography community could become very proactive by undertaking a variety of structured and
detailed inquiries. These could include major term paper or thesis projects at the graduate and
undergraduate levels, as well as works by professors, teachers, media professionals, and other
friends of geography seeking to help strengthen the geography-media relationship.

Frameworks for documenting the media’s use of the geographic community and its work are
provided by Table 4 and Table 5, respectively.

Table 4 presents a selection of media stories that were written by geographers; cite the
geographers for their remarks, materials, etc.; or which name geographers as contributors to the
story. I hasten to add that the selected articles were assembled because of convenience of access,
and that the table may be expanded before the symposium if time permits. Towards that end,
viewers of the posted draft of Geography and the Media: Strengthening the Relationship, and
recipients of the message sent to Caglist, are invited to contribute to Table 4 by sending their
contributions as soon as possible to wellarb@uottawa.ca.

In recognition of the possibility that not all readers subscribe to Caglist, the messages sent to
Caglist members are repeated here. This way all readers are apprised of the requests made to
obtain media stories involving geographers and geography.

The first communication was posted April 28, 2005. It included the session outline (paragraphs
one and two in the Abstract) and the remainder was as follows:

Media Materials Invited: I am assembling materials for my presentation on Geography and
the Media, which is one of the topics of the symposium, Projecting Geography in the Public
Domain in Canada, Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, University of
Western Ontario, London, June 2-3, 2005. Assistance is requested.

The organizers of the symposium have set the bar very high in terms of the anticipated
content of presentations. Moreover, there is a distinct 'call for action' associated with each
of the sessions.

For my presentation, Geography and the Media, I welcome receiving copies of or links to
media reports, programs, etc., which address questions raised in the abstract. In addition,
however, I welcome receiving copies of or links to media materials which demonstrate the
pertinence of geographers and geography to matters of public interest. (The test here is
basic: items that are 'published' by the media are deemed to be of public interest.)

I look forward to receiving materials and reference information at the earliest opportunity.
Thanks are given in advance to all who contribute materials.

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The second message to Caglist members was posted May 13, 2005:

Readers are requested to contribute to Geography and the Media:
Strengthening the Relationship, which I am presenting at the CAG 2005
symposium on Projecting Geography in the Public Domain in Canada. I am preparing two
tables that report on media stories involving geographers and geography, respectively. I
have an urgent need for a dozen or so contributed items.

Please send the following information on a media story in which a geographer is involved
as author, interviewer, interviewee, etc. Media includes print, radio, TV, Internet.

Name and Affiliation:
Title of Story:
Source and Date of Story:
Use of Geographer: Eg., author, expert, provided data, panelist, commentator, resource
person, provided references to materials, supplied maps, provided direction for the story,
etc.

Please send the following information on a media story in which geography is involved.

Title of Story:
Source and Date of Story:
Use Made of Geography: Eg., geography or geographic term mentioned, geography
intrinsic to story but no mention of anything geographic, GIS discussed, meaning of
congestion analyzed, maps showing spatial interaction featured, NIMBY discovered to
have a geographic aspect, insight gained into the role of geography in location of homeless
shelters, geographic factors found to influence travel behaviour and obesity, global
warming, etc.

By way of brief comment on the materials that continue to be assembled for (an expanded) Table
4, they establish that geographers have been involved in stories in all the media. More
specifically, geographers have been involved in stories dealing with both curiosity-driven and
client-driven research, and a variety of subject matters. Moreover, the “use” of geographers by
the media includes all the research activities identified in Figure 1, the transforms in Figure 4,
and involves many of the geographic terms and concepts listed in Table 1.

Viewers of the posted draft of the presentation, and recipients of the Caglist message, are also
invited to send materials for a possible expansion of Table 5 before the Symposium, time and
resources permitting. In the interests of space and time, and recognizing that we
are at a very preliminary stage, it is requested that the “Use made of Geography” line in Table 5
be described or demonstrated via keywords. Figures 1 and 4, and Tables 1, 2 and 4 provide a
number of keywords that should be pertinent to completing this row.

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Table 4.
Geographers in the Media: An Initial, Limited Compilation of
Stories in Which Geographers Are Named

Name and affiliation: Barry Wellar, Ministry of State for Urban Affairs
Title of Story: Taking steps towards the end of the automobile era
Source: Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 9, 1975
Use of Geographer: Author of editorial page column, Citizen Forum, on why and how
Canada in general and Ottawa in particular should move away from the car as a dominant
force in our way of life, including references to the impending energy-shortfall problem,
and the failure of governments at all levels to respect the highest and best use principle in
car-oriented transportation policies, plans and programs.
Name and affiliation: Barry Wellar, University of Ottawa
Title of Story: Coming soon- the instant answer age
Source: Geelong Advertiser, Geelong, Australia, Dec. 3, 1981.
Use of Geographer: Interviewed as keynote speaker at AURISA 81 conference on impact
of information technology on councils, planners, and society.
Title of Story: Professor’s Doomsday Map relies on headlines, grandchildren and gut
feeling
Source: Ottawa Citizen, October 25, 1990
Use of Geographer: Interviewed by columnist Roy MacGregor about plenary presentation
at GIS/LIS ’90 in Anaheim, California on “mapping our demise”.
Title of Story: Megacity
Source: CBC TV, Newsworld, November 7, 1997
Use of Geographer: Panellist for amalgamation discussion, cities of Toronto, Halifax,
Ottawa, Winnipeg, Montreal.
Title of Story: Great Moments in Transportation
Source: CBC Radio One (This Morning), June 2, 1999
Use of Geographer: Interviewed by host Michael Enright on major events in the field of
transportation as part of the CBC One Millenium Series.
Title of Story: Geographer identifies ‘critical failures’ at urban intersections
Source: The Centretown BUZZ, August 23, 2002
Use of Geographer: Interviewed for story on Walking Security Index research.
Title of Story: Urban/Rural Divide?
Source: City Desk-Ottawa Citizen, Channel 22 (Rogers) April 29, 2003
Use of Geographer: Panellist on Ottawa development issues involving differences in
urban and rural perspectives, and lack of a harmonizing vision.

17

Table 4. (Continued)

Title of Story: Stop 417 projects, says U of O Prof.
Source: The News (Ottawa), October 28, 2004
Use of Geographer: Column based on a series of communications to Minister of
Transportation H. Takhar and Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Jim Watson concerning futility
of road-widening projects, and proposing a sustainable transportation test in order to
analytically compare the full benefits and cost of alternative transportation modes (walk,
cycle, transit/rail) and the private motor vehicle mode.
Title of Story: Intersection Wars
Source: CBC Radio One-This Morning, September 3, 1999
Use of Geographer: Interviewed by Michael Enright about urban transportation conflicts
among pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists.
Title of Story: Road Rage, Rage routière
|Source: CTV News, Radio-Canada, July 12, 1999
Use of Geographer: Commentator on road rage incidents, with emphasis on how road
design and enforcement strategies need to be combined.
Title of Story: Choosing a Future: A New Economic Vision for Ottawa
Source: Ottawa Citizen, June 7, 2000
Use of Geographer: In an Editorial page exchange of views with the mayor of Ottawa.
Column discusses methodological flaws in consultant report about Ottawa’s economic
development options, including failure to recognize prior work by geographers in the
field of urban, industrial, etc., clusters.
Title of Story: Walking Security Index Research
Source: CBC Radio One-As It Happens, April 23, 2000
Use of Geographer: Interviewed to discuss origins, design, findings and implications of
the Walking Security Index research project on pedestrians’(security (safety, comfort,
convenience) in cities across Canada.
Title of Story: A valuable new way to map our land
Source: Ottawa Citizen, November 17, 2004
Use of Geographer: Author of editorial page column on how advancements in the fields
of geographic information systems and geographic information sciences are contributing
to geographic research, as well as to government and business operations and
applications.

18


Name and affiliation: Daniel Cossette, Ghassene Jerandi and Genvieve Cool, Laboratory
for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science (LAGGISS), University of Ottawa
Title of Story: U of O geomatics scores
Source: The Fulcrum, Issue 7, October 14-20, 2004.
Use of Geographer: Students featured in a story describing the projects recognized for
excellence in a national mapping competition.
Name and affiliation: Michael Sawada, University of Ottawa.
Title of Story: Firm maps road to relief
Source: The Ottawa Sun, Jan 11, 2005.
Use of Geographer: Source of information explaining of how DM Solutions and the
Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science (LAGGISS) worked together to help
provide online maps for regions in Southeast Asia affected by the tsunami.
Name and affiliation: Melanie Zahab, Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS
Science (LAGGISS), University of Ottawa.
Title of Story: Interview for Tsunami Mapping
Source: RDC Telejournal, Jan 12, 2005.
Use of Geographer: Interviewed for a story on the characteristics of the web portal that
was created to support the creation and dissemination of online maps as part of the
LAGGISS and DM Solutions involvement in the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort.

Name and affiliation: Michael Sawada, University of Ottawa.
Title of Story: Interview for Urban Health
Source: CBC Radio 1, Feb 28, 2005.
Use of Geographer: Interviewed for story on how Ottawa’s design affects the well being
of residents, with emphasis on how GIS and GISc apply geographic terms and concepts
(see Table 1) to perform the analyses.

Title of Story: Downtown pedestrian-friendly – But expert in pedestrian planning doesn’t
give Moncton suburbs high marks, saying they are geared to the automobile
Source: Times & Transcript (Moncton), May 31, 2004
Use of Geographer: Interviewed for columns and editorials on the development of the
Walking Security Index, the contribution of geographic concepts to the design of the
Index, the reasons behind the factors (variables) selected for the Index, an explanation of
the importance of walking to the implementation of alternative transportation strategies,
and for an expert opinion on the level of success achieved by the active transportation
network plans and programs adopted in Moncton to encourage more people to leave their
cars at home and walk or bike.

19

With regard to Table 5, the listed articles are a very small fraction of the materials compiled for
previous projects extending back in time some 40 years, and more than and more recently for
this assignment. Moreover, they are a miniscule fraction of the number of media stories
obtainable from electronic searches using many of the terms in Table 1. Indeed, and as my
students learned over the many years that I included a newspaper search and review assignment
in a course on Methods of Geographic Research, lack of care in designing the search algorithm
can yield a crop of output that cannot be harvested.

I hasten to add, however, that the widespread presence of geographic terms or concepts in a
number of stories is often only an indication that geography occupies a “popular” place in the
media. More specifically, and somewhat along the lines of “term dropping” when writing journal
abstracts in order to get lots of hits and potential citations, adding a bit of geography to a story
can give it the appearance of grounding to compensate for lack of field work.

More intensive research than can be undertaken here is required in order to ascertain the “clout”
or significance of geography to the issue, decision, choice, process, outcome, etc., of each media
story. One matter of specific interest would be to ascertain the extent to which stories tend go
beyond description to explanation and prediction, and the extent to which the stories incorporate
elements of the geofactor in association with design, forecasting, prescription, evaluation, or
impact assessment studies undertaken for governments, businesses and other clients. This is a
classic content analysis/synthesis task, and a number of the pertinent terms to upon which to base
such studies are presented in previous tables and figures.

An instructive model in this regard may be the client-driven research report, Newspapers as a
Source of Fact and Opinion on Pedestrians’ Safety, Comfort, Convenience: A Keyword-Based
Literature Search and Review (Wellar, 2000). That project demonstrated how keywords could be
used to identify newspaper articles that related directly to the spatial features of intersections,
and the modifications needed to improve pedestrians’ security. Even more important, however,
applying the spatially oriented keyword search procedure to newspapers was instrumental in
developing and applying the concept of “critical failure” to measuring and assessing intersection
performance.

I believe similar searches in other domains would yield a number of stories that put the work and
image of the geography community in a very positive light. Among other reasons for my
confidence in this regard is the fact that a number of researchers have found the media to be a
valuable source of ideas and inspiration, and an excellent arena in which to receive feedback on
the publicly perceived relevance /utility of our work. It is my experience that geographers who
wish to be successful in the domain of public policies, plans, or programs are well-advised to run
their work through the media test as often as circumstances permit.

To close off Q2, it is necessary to raise the matter of what might be termed the “glitches” in the
relationship between geography and the media. That is, if all were well in the geography-media
relationship, then there would be little point to this session at the Symposium other than to
generate some “feel good” publicity. It is my opinion, however, that there are more than just
some rough edges to deal with, and that this is the time and place to begin putting our differences
on the table so that we can reconcile them and then move forward.

20

Table 5.
Geography in the Media: An Initial, Limited Compilation of
Stories in Which Geography and/or Geographic
Terms and Concepts Are Named. Or Not!

Title of Story: Bloc backtracks on rights of natives after separation
Source: Ottawa Citizen, May 27, 1994
Use Made of Geography: Political geography concepts central to analysis.
Title of Story: Don’t underestimate the threat of global warming
Source: Globe and Mail, April 17, 1995
Use Made of Geography: Numerous geoterms, mostly implicit references to geographic
concepts.
Title of Story: Wildlife knows no boundaries, needs protection
Source: Montreal Gazette, January 30, 1997
Use Made of Geography: Geofactor terms and concepts central to letter about Canadian
Endangered Species Act (Bill C-65).
Title of Story: Telework makes sense for Toronto
Source: Toronto Star, March 9, 1998
Use Made of Geography: Geofactor and geoterms central to discussion of why and how
sprawl occurs, and why and how telecommuting can be part of an enlightened alternative
transportation strategy.
Title of Story: Icecap gone in 50 years, study warns
Source: Ottawa Citizen, December 2, 1999
Use Made of Geography: Numerous geography concepts and terms referenced, explicit
regard for geotechniques and geoanalysis.
Title of Story: Quarter of mammals face extinction
Source: Vancouver Sun, May 22, 2002
Use Made of Geography: Encroachment of habitat concepts and competition for space
underpin article.
Title of Story: Cities
Source: CBC-The National, January 1, 2004
Use Made of Geography: Provided spatial context for compare/contrast analysis.
Title of Story: The promised land and a double garage
Source: National Post, April 22, 2005
Use Made of Geography: Geofactor, geoterms and map central to analysis of urban
growth initiatives in U.S. and consequences.

21


Title of Story: Rural residents unreasonable about wards
Use Made of Geography: Spatial reference for letter on size of rural wards and fair
representation for all residents in Ottawa

Title of Story; Amalgamania
Source: CBC Radio-This Morning, March 09, 2001
Use Made of Geography: Political and human geography concepts central to panel
discussion of impacts of amalgamation on citizens and municipal institutions

Title of Story; Geographically Challenged? No way!
Source: Manitoulin Expositor, March 30, 2005
Use Made of Geography: Focus of photograph and caption for item on junior division
finalists, Geography Challenge, Central Manitoulin Public School

Title of Story: Le sort des piétons
Source: Émission d'affaires publiques à Radio-Canada (télé): ENJEUX du 15 mars 2005
Use Made of Geography: Utilisation de la carte en toile de fon du reportage. Référence
aux aires les plus problématiques pour les piétons, incluant des quot;témoignagesquot; de
victimes...

Title of Story: Piéton à Montréal: Bipèdes en danger
Source: La Presse, lundi 2 mai 2005
Use Made of Geography: Section de 2 pages, incluant une quot;carte de l'insécurité routièrequot;
qui montre le nombre de piétons blessés dans chaque arrondissements.
(Commentaire: peu d'emphase sur la géographie du problème, mais emphase sur des
quartiers problématiques!)

Title of Story: Fixing the Ontario Municipal Board: A Strategic Approach for Citizen
Groups
Source: Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, www.urbanneighbourhoods.ca, May 2004
Use Made of Geography: Numerous concepts from political geography and principles
from planning combined in a set of strategies to be employed by community groups in
discussions with Province of Ontario on how to reform the dysfunctional agency.

Title of Story: Healthy cities, healthy economy
Source: Toronto Star, June 26, 2001 GIS Café.
Use Made of Geography: Numerous references by Judy Sgro, Chair, Prime Minister’s
Urban Task Force, to geographic terms and concepts (access, place, location, districts,
open space, areas,…) in a speech on cities and Canada’s economy.

22


Title of Story: Rural residents unreasonable about wards
Use Made of Geography: Spatial reference for letter on size of rural wards and fair
representation for all residents in Ottawa

Title of Story; Amalgamania
Source: CBC Radio-This Morning
Use Made of Geography: Political and human geography concepts central to panel
discussion of impacts of amalgamation on citizens and municipal institutions

Title of Story; Geographically Challenged? No way!
Source: Manitoulin Expositor, March 30, 2005
Use Made of Geography: Focus of photograph and caption for item on junior division
finalists, Geography Challenge, Central Manitoulin Public School

Title of Story: Great Lakes clean-up at a critical turning point
Source: Canadian Geographic, Vol. 110: No. 6, Dec’90/’Dec91
Use Made of Geography: Many terms and concepts from Table 1used to describe, explain
predict condition and state of the Great Lakes, very effective use of location map and
photographs to illustrate text and support argument.

Title of Story: What’s Burnaby Council doing? The library has all the answers.
Source: Vancouver Sun, September 14, 1987.
Use Made of Geography: Location of Skytrain extension and properties affected by re-
zoning applications used to demonstrate utility of Burnaby’s emerging on-line resource
for obtaining data/information from City hall documents.

Title of Story: Out of sight, out of mind
Source: Globe and Mail, August 23, 1991
Use Made of Geography; Highly exhortative column, minimal regard for the
geographical aspects of the waste disposal problem, and no apparent awareness of
numerous geographical works in this domain.

Title of Story: McCallion opposes toll road for Niagara: Mid-peninsula corridor fees
would turn QEW into parking lot.
Source: The Review (Niagara Falls), November 09, 2002
Use Made of Geography: Hazel McCallion, Mayor of Mississauga and Chair of the
Greater Toronto Area Smart Growth panel, comments on the area’s traffic congestion and
garbage problems. The story does not mention that lack of regard for geographic
considerations over many years earned Mayor McCallion the title, “Queen of Sprawl”.

23

On the presumptions, therefore, that honesty is (still) the best policy and that the sooner sticking
points are dealt with the better, a list of “glitches” or “bones to pick” was compiled. The
following are presented to illustrate why the geography community has cause to want the media
community to do a better job in terms of how it uses our work and projects our image in the
public domain:

• The geography community and geography have not been included in many media stories
that fall within our scope. While this oversight may be seen to have an element of
professional pride to it, the more serious concern is that matters of public policy, for
example, may be subjected to inferior and perhaps even erroneous treatment in the
absence of due consideration being given to the geographic aspects of cause-effect forces.

• Understatements and misrepresentations about the importance of geographical factors
have frequently occurred in media stories.

• Proper attributions of geographers and their works have frequently not been made in
media stories.

• More often than we might wish, media stories deemed significant by the geographic
community are not considered newsworthy by the media, including the media relations
staff in our own institutions.
• Too many members of the media have a sense of geography that is 30 years out of date,
and our image has been diminished as a result.

Those are major causes for concern about how our work is used, abused, or mis-used by the
media. Further, the negative images that each shortcoming could project in the public domain
compound the problem. While in-depth investigations of those kinds of concerns are beyond the
scope of this assignment, they will need to be considered in an action plan to strengthen the
geography–media relationship. Contributions towards that end are made in the responses to
Questions 3, 4, and 5.

Q3. Has It [the Geography Community] Done as Much as It Might to Project Its
Work in the Public Domain?
Following from the “it depends” condition noted at the beginning of Part I, the response and
reactions to the response to Q3 depend upon how high or how low we set the bar of expectations.
Further, in the absence of being able to survey the community about its activities, the only
avenue available to this project to achieve even a preliminary assessment of the community’s
performance, is to look to the literature for evidence of effort.

It appears reasonable to suggest, upon careful examination of Table 3 and Table 4, that the
literature is an especially pertinent measure on to begin the assessment process for responding to
Q3. Indeed, even the tough markers among us might be inclined to agree that if the geographic
community is performing solidly in all aspects of the literature and the media which are listed in
Tables 3 and 4, then we can have confidence in believing that we are doing a very good job of
projecting our work in the public domain.

24

Bearing in mind, therefore, that I do not have documentation on all the non-literature-related
activities in which members of the geographic community engage, and that I am dealing solely
with our contributions to the literature, one further distinction needs to be made. That is,
individual members and organizations may have done their best to project their work in the
public domain in general, and in the media in particular, and have been rewarded for their
efforts. No doubt, names of these individuals, agencies, associations and businesses will be
known to the reader. However, with regard to the geographic community as a whole, it appears
likely that we have not done as much as we might.

Table 6 contains observations that outline how, in my view, we have not done as much as we
might to project our work in and through the media. The observations, which can also be
interpreted as ways to improve our performance, are based on several recent literature searches
for projects, publications and public lectures, as well as consultations with colleagues. In
addition, I applied the figures and tables in Part I to put Q3 in context, and to provide a
framework for deriving the assessments.

The impressions contained in the response to Q3 are a first cut at assessing the effort that the
geographic community as a body -- individuals, associations, businesses, government agencies,
etc., -- has made to project its work in the public domain. The list is intended to be indicative,
and no claim is made about comprehensiveness. However, if even several of the impressions are
on target, then it appears fair to say that there is much to be done by the geography community to
more effectively project its work in the public domain in general and in the media in particular.

Which brings me to the matter of the specific activities that the geographic community can
undertake to assist or encourage the media to project the work of the community in the public
domain. As shown by Table 7 and Table 8, there are intervention and invitation aspects to these
activities, and both are pertinent to assessing whether we have done as much as we might to
project our work in the public domain.

Since the reader is no doubt fully aware of the general distinction between interventions and
invitations, that topic is not discussed in the presentation. Instead, the focus of our attention is on
the elements that comprise interventions and invitations, respectively, and the intimate
relationship between interventions and invitations.

It is possible that many individuals and organizations in the geographic community are making
the kinds of interventions listed in Table 7, and are doing all they can to project their work in the
public domain. It is also, possible, however, that a number of members and organizations are not
fully engaged in these kinds of activities. To the extent that the latter condition holds, the
geography community is not doing as much as it might to project its work in the public domain.

With regard to the matter of invitations being extended to contribute to stories, they are highly
dependent upon the record of interventions previously achieved by individuals and organizations.
That is, when members of the media are considering who to involve in stories, they tend to want
to examine the track record of media activity before making contact, much less committing to an
interview, accepting an opinion, going on a site visit, publishing data, etc.

25

Table 6.
Has the Geography Community Done as Much as It Might
To Project Its Work in the Public Domain?
I Don’t Think So*

1. Relatively few members of the geographic community have made significant
contributions to all the curiosity-driven and client-driven research activities listed
in Figure 1.
contributions to creating and improving the connections between geography,
curiosity-driven research, client-driven research, and the media (Figure 2).
3. As suggested by the design of Figure 3, and the small amount of overlap among
the “petals”, relatively few members of the geographic community have
contributed (to) media stories that present the best of geographic research through
combining the methodologies of both curiosity-driven and client-driven research.
4. The higher-level information-to-knowledge phase of the data-to-knowledge
process (Figure 4) receives relatively less regard from members of the geographic
community than the lower level reality-to-data and data-to-information phases.
contributions to all the literatures listed in Table 2.
contributions to stories carried by all the media listed in Table 3.
7. Relatively few conferences organized by the geographic community include
members of the media as speakers or discussants.
8. Relatively few proceedings of seminars, conferences or colloquia organized by
the geography community include papers by journalists, columnists or media
researchers.
9. Relatively few research publications or books authored by geographers use or cite
stories in the media as sources of fact or opinion.
* I hasten to add that I will be pleased to amend any entry in Table 6 as soon as I receive
evidence that an impression is in error. Moreover, as a potential contributor to the cause of
achieving an empirical assessment as to how much the geographic community has done or
might do to project its work in the media slice of the public domain, I would be pleased to
discuss Table 6 with any students undertaking thesis or dissertation research in this field.

26

Table 7.
Opportunities to Project Geography Through
The Media: By Intervention

1. Write letters to the editor
2. Write guest columns
3. Write articles
4. Seek meetings with editorial boards to discuss potential stories
5. Propose site or field trips to illustrate basis of a potential story
6. Send maps, graphics to journalists
7. Participate in call-in shows
8. Write media releases
9. Suggest stories/features
10. Send publications
11. Send tapes
12. Send CD-Rs
13. Send copies of correspondence
14. Distribute information brochures
15. Disseminate press releases
16. Post materials on web sites
17. Initiate group mailings

An equally and perhaps even more important matter for the geography community, however, is
one that goes far beyond just trying to figure out how to get invitations to do stories. The focus of
this comment involves the intimate intervention-invitation relationship noted above.

Because of the connections between interventions and invitations, the question of “whether we
have done as much as we might” needs to take into account what we did to precipitate media
invitations, and the extent to which we made the case for geography in the interventions. That is,
at the risk of belabouring the potentially obvious, the more and better we make the case for
geography in our interventions, the higher the likelihood that the invitation will have a basis in
geography. The list of potential interventions identified in Table 6 is presented as a starting point
for assessing our performance as intervenors, advocates, and activists.

Further, and in addition to asking about the products and services that we have to offer the
media, a critical assessment requires that we also ask ourselves whether we have done as much
as we might to help create or sell stories to producers, editors or publishers. As noted by
members of the various media, and media relations staff at the University of Ottawa, there are
many potential stories. However, only a limited number of them are going to receive media
attention, much less be published in the media literature. The message for the geographic
community, therefore, is that if we expect to receive invitations that result in coverage, then we
must respect the two-step process. That is, after we earn the invitations to contribute to stories,
we must then do what we can to ensure that the contributions are projected in the public domain..

27

In terms of doing as much as we can to earn invitations, one avenue involves establishing
reputations that induce members of the media community to contact us in story situations. The
following have been suggested as part of the set of characteristics of individuals who are likely to
be seen as candidates to receive media opportunities to participate in stories. I note that while
most of the characteristics appear to apply across the media, the importance of several
characteristics depend upon the particular medium involved.

• Known as a source of ideas that have a ‘hook’ for the media.
• Known for having a “sense of audience”, that is, being able to perform at a level or in a
manner most likely to be appreciated by the story audience.
• Known for subject matter knowledge that goes beyond so-called “common sense”
• Known for clear, concise, spot-on writing skills.
• Known to be a ‘quick-response’ for facts, explanations, and commentary.
• Known for crisp, articulate, to-the-point interview skills, and especially not subject to
hemming-and-hawing.
• Known for being ready, able and willing to express a professional opinion.
• Known to be able to admit not being an expert on a topic outside his/her realm of
expertise.
• Known as an expert with a distinct point of view or understanding.
• Perceived to have a strong and dynamic personality, that is, not boring!
• Able to call on appealing graphic support.
• Regarded as thoughtfully provocative and provocatively thoughtful.
• Able to speak without notes, crib sheets, cue cards, or reams of print-out paper in hand.
• Ability to wait for the question without interrupting the interviewer.
• Does not use bafflegab wrapped in technical nomenclature.

Table 8 presents an indicative list of the by-invitation opportunities which are available to project
geography through the media, and which build on the by-intervention opportunities contained in
Table 7. In the absence of empirical evidence, it is not possible to provide a definitive comment
on whether we are doing as much as we might in regard to receiving and acting on invitations to
project geography through the media. (More on this in the response to Q6.)

That said, it is my impression that the geographic community could do a better job of reputation
building as a precursor to receiving invitations. In addition-, it is my further impression that our
actual level of participation in media opportunities is considerably less than the potential. These
two impressions require elaboration and justification.

The basis of these observations is provided by the contents of Table 2 and Table 3 in Part I.
These tables contain an indicative list of the literatures pertinent to a discussion about geography,
and the various types of media open to us for projecting geography in the public domain. In my
experience, relatively few geographers are in the habit of substantively dealing with all or even
most of the types of literature listed in Table 2, or all the types of media listed in Table 3. To the
extent that those impressions represent reality, we have room to improve on how often and how
well we seize the opportunity to project geography in the public domain through the media.

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Table 8.
Opportunities to Project Geography through the Media:
By Invitation

• Provide background information.
• Provide data.
• Provide maps, graphics.
• Provide references to the literature.
• Make recommendations about materials to read, listen to, or view.
• Provide names of agencies to contact, experts to contact, web sites to visit.
• Comment on the direction, context, and composition of stories.
• Accompany journalists on site visits to intersections, wetlands, subdivision
developments, crime scenes, glaciers, industrial plants, environmentally sensitive
areas, schools, rezoning sites, shopping centres, light rail stations, highrises, flood
plains, foothills, cemeteries, conservation areas, and anywhere else that involves
bringing a geographic perspective to bear (recall Table 1) in describing, explaining
or predicting situations, events, processes in our natural or built environments.
• Illustrate how changes in technology (such as Geographic Information Systems)
and methodology (such as developments in index design, and integration of text,
numerics and graphics through advances in Geographic Information Science)
contribute to geographic studies and applications.
• Comment on public policies, plans, programs, or projects.
• Comment on private sector activities.
• Interpret materials in journals, government documents.
• Do live and taped interviews for print, radio or television stories.
• Provide analysis/synthesis support.
• Report on research in progress, discuss findings.
• Write position papers, manifestos, or columns.
• Provide expert opinions, participate in debates.

Q4. What would the media expect from an organization that was seeking to
better project its work (in geography) in the public domain?
This question has been slightly modified from the original so that it is self-contained, and the
response to Q4 is not governed by the response to Q3. In this way, organizations can examine the
nine impressions presented in Table 6 in section Q3, and can select for consideration those which
are deemed more or most pertinent to their respective situations.

Further, the term “organization” is first taken to apply to the bodies responsible for sponsoring,
organizing, hosting and supporting the symposium, that is, the Canadian Association of
Geographers, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Canadian Council on Geographic
Education, and the Ontario Association of Geographers. In addition, however, since we are

29

concerned about projecting geography in Canada, it is appropriate that we broaden our scope to
include all the entities identified in the symposium outline: associations of all types; academic
institutions at all levels and especially geography departments; businesses; corporations;
industries; government agencies at all levels; as well as any non-government agencies or other
organizations that I have not identified.

A comprehensive response to Q4 is beyond the resources available for this assignment, as each
type of organization warrants explicit attention. Simply put, since there may be wide differences
among organizations’ efforts to project their work in the public domain, a ‘one-size-fits-all’
approach is not appropriate when it comes to prescribing remedial measures.

Moreover, as illustrated above in Table 3, there are many aspects to “the media”, and great
variations in scales of operation, market areas, scheduling of publications, technologies, human
resources, etc. It therefore follows that using a one-size-fits-all approach is not likely to provide
an informed answer to the question,

“What would the media expect ...?”

Instead, what is most likely required to deal with this issue effectively and efficiently is to treat
each type of medium separately, that is, print, radio, television, Internet, and perhaps there are
others. Organizations could then involve representatives from the relevant literatures and media
in the formulation of strategies designed to serve and promote efforts (by organizations) to better
project their work in the public domain.

The situation confronting us in Q4, in brief, is that there is no easy, useful, robust,
comprehensive answer to question four. That said, it appears highly likely that Q4 or a variation
of Q4 will be front-and-center at the closing symposium session, Geography and its Future in
Canada. Similarly, and as may be inferred from its presence in the symposium outline, what to
do about media expectations is an issue of significant concern to the organizations responsible
for the symposium. Regrettably, at this time I do not have a general much less a detailed “How to
proceed” plan to put forward. However, I have identified two elements of that plan that involve
inviting the media to assist in answering Q4.

First, requests have been sent to several members of the various media to obtain their thoughts
on Q4. Time and circumstances permitting, I will add materials to this part of the presentation in
the next several weeks, and report the findings at the symposium.

Second, numerous contacts with members of the media over a number of years are behind the
development of Table 7 and Table 8. A selection of journalists, columnists, media researchers,
and academics will be asked to review these tables, and to direct me to better tables if this work
has already been done. If these tables do not already exist, then the members of the media
community will be asked to propose revisions and additions based on their experience with the
geography community.

30

Q5. How can the media and geographic community [better] inform each other?
The “it depends” condition noted at the outset of the response to Q3 needs to be made explicit for
Q5. That is, the response to Q5 is very much shaped by what has been written in the responses to
Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. Further, in the event that the needed corrective measures to deal with Q1,
Q2, Q3, and Q4 were taken, then it seems likely that Q5 would be a matter of relatively minor
concern. Those two comments are deemed sufficient to establish that the observations which
follow have a context, and that these observations should be considered and acted upon with due
regard for that context.

First, there is a need for members and organizations of the geographic community to accept the
premise of Q5; namely, that it is in our best interest if “… the media and geography community
[better] inform each other.”

Upon achieving that state of mind, we then need to accept that the onus is on the geographic
community to identify and implement ways and means of doing a much better job of informing
both the geography and media communities of contributions to the media outlets listed in Table
3. The proposition at work here, simply put, is that such a mindset is necessary in order for
geographers and their organizations to commit to building the foundation which is needed to
establish geography as a significant player in an “Information Society”.

Once the attitude adjustment process is complete, the geographic community can call on library
science and Internet expertise to create an electronic means for connecting the media with media-
active members and organizations of the geographic community. There is every reason to believe
that with such a digital bridge in place, the media community will increasingly look to the
geographic community to take advantage of the opportunities indicated by Figures 2, 3, and 4,
and Tables 1, 4, 5 and 8.

Second, the quest for a better geography-media relationship puts an onus directly on members of
the geography community to be better scholars. Specifically, if we want to be held in high regard
for the quality of our work, and the significance of our field, then we are obliged to better inform
the media of work previously done by geographers who introduced ideas, provided analyses,
raised questions, and provided expert opinions, etc., in the media months or years ago.

To my mind, this is a very important matter, and one that requires further, explicit comment. To
put the concern bluntly, work that has appeared previously in the media warrants far more active
consideration than it is sometimes accorded by geographers who are casual about acknowledging
that their comments, materials, etc., are in fact based on or derived from the work of others.

Further, lack of regard by geographers for work previously by other geographers prompts a
question with unsettling implications for the field of geography. That is,

“If we do not recognize those who have laid the foundation for our current media
interventions and invitations, then who will?”

31

I hasten to add in partial reply that while economists, computer scientists, geologists, political
scientists, sociologists, etc., use many of the geographic concepts listed in Table 1, they are not
likely to herald the building block work done by geographers! There are notable exceptions to
this observation, of course, including a number of the participants in a colloquium on economic
development strategies that was organized by the writer (Wellar, 1981). However, one only has
to peruse the GIS literature, for example, to confirm the validity of the comment about lack of
due regard being shown to pioneering work done by geographers.*

The objective of these comments is to emphasize that simply by exercising better scholarship,
beginning with better referencing procedures, we have a quick-and-easy way for geographers to
better inform the media about our work.

Bearing in mind, therefore, that the popular literature is a class of literature, and the most
consequential literature in the public domain, it is second-rate scholarship at best to claim or infer
originality in media stories when the facts are otherwise. That is, we already have a record of
media contributions. Geographers engaged in creating current stories should seize the opportunity
to affirm that record by crediting the geographers who have gone before. I cannot immediately
conceive of an easier, more effective way of simultaneously projecting our work, enhancing our
image, and informing the media than by building on existing foundations.

As a further comment along this line of thought, the creation of an electronic capability
suggested above to inform us and the media about our media appearances is a precondition for
eliminating the “missed opportunities” problem. Once that technology is in place, however, it
would do much more than just aid and abet those who are inclined to give credit where credit is
due. That is, such a capability would no doubt induce most media participants to carefully check
the files for attribution purposes, since failure to do so could be a major source of difficulty if
scholarship and idea theft concerns arise.

Third, the decision to include a session on Geography and the Media in this symposium is
already serving as a catalyst to engender more discourse between the media and geography.
Based on comments received to date from both the media and geographic communities,
including offers to participate in further discussions, it appears fair to say that the session and
symposium represent a significant step towards addressing the question, “How can the media and
the geographic community [better] inform each other?”

Q6. How could geographers be helped to deal more effectively with events like
the Montreal ice storm that are seared in the public mind as experiences and yet
beg wider understanding?

*
Geographers are by no means alone in adopting what might be termed a ‘casual attitude’ when it comes to proper
attribution in media stories. Research on a related project now in progress has identified numerous stories in which
journalists, as well as current and former politicians at all levels, appear to have ‘borrowed’ liberally for columns
and interviews. While not as “upbeat” as some of the other aspects of the geography-media relationship, this is also
a topic that warrants consideration if honesty is part of the better-informing process.

32

At the risk of being trite, there are major differences in preparing for, versus actually delivering,
an effective media story about geographical topics. That is, few geographic stories can be equally
well presented by print, radio or television (the Internet is a separate matter) since differences in
situations frequently require different skills in writing, telling, or telling and showing the story.
Indeed, in cases where the story has a “hook” that makes it of popular interest to readers,
listeners and viewers, the geographer may need to have a very high level of competency in all
three media domains (print, radio and television) in order to do the story justice.

Further, media officials are very aware of the different abilities and inclinations of their
audiences to read, hear and view stories, and their “druthers” about how they expect a story is
going to be presented. As a result, members of the media community frequently have their own
‘profiles’ on who in the geographic community should be contacted to contribute to a story, and
how that story is to be written, told and/or shown.

With those comments as a frame of reference, the following ‘recipe’ is proposed to serve two
purposes. It outlines a means for helping geographers deal more effectively with events in ways
that “make the media happy”. Then, in addition to serving that societal function, the recipe also
enables members of the geographic community to substantively contribute to the data,
information and knowledge bases of the geographic matters under consideration.

First, a second reading of this paper is recommended, with extra time spent on Figure 3 and
Figure 4, and Tables 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8. There are numerous connections between and among the
responses to Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5, and it would be imprudent to consider the following
suggestions without having due regard for all that has been presented in the lead-up to Q6.

Second, numerous possibilities emerge from the responses to Q1-Q5. However, in terms of
practical, doable activities, three initiatives appear to warrant priority treatment as effective ways
of helping the geographic community help the media community to better project the geographic
community in the public domain.

• It is essential that the digital facility for posting and accessing media stories involving
geographers be established at the earliest moment. Once that capability is in place,
consideration could be given to turning it into a data-information-knowledge resource
organized around key geographic terms and concepts, such as those listed in Table 1.
• There appears to be a major need for training programs, including short courses and
workshops – all with an online emphasis for reasons of effectiveness and efficiency–
which are designed to assist members of the geographic community acquire or
sharpen skills needed improve our capacity to:

- Write for the media
- Talk to/with the media
- Provide reference materials for the media
- Prepare graphics for the media
- Prepare videos for the media
- Incorporate geographic factors, elements,
dimensions, attributes, etc., in media stories.

33

The third proposed initiative has the potential to put geography front-and-center in the minds of
the media community when it comes to stories involving the concepts, processes, situations, and
numerous other matters considered over the course of the symposium on Projecting Geography
in the Public Domain in Canada. Moreover, this initiative is designed to take advantage of the
effort invested in the symposium, and induce the media community to actively participate in
strengthening the geography-media relationship.

It is my experience that a number of members of the media community could benefit from
increased ‘exposure’ to the subject matter, methodology, and technology of the field of
geography, and to the many members of the geographic community who wish to strengthen the
geography-media relationship.

Discussions with editorialists, journalists, reporters, and media researchers indicate that the
media community has considerable interest in strengthening the relationship between geography
and the media. Further, members of the media community have actively supported the
development of this presentation by their feedback on questions, and their suggestions on how to
strengthen the geography-media relationship. Their support for this presentation, their
contributions to the responses, and their suggestions on how the media community could help the
geography community, combine to suggest initiative number three.

• Using materials from Geography and the Media: Strengthening the Relationship as a
foundation, and complemented by materials from the other symposium sessions, prepare
a suite of “educational products” demonstrating how geography and geographers can
help the media help the public to better understand the events and processes shaping
Canada and Canadians.

These products with their online emphasis would then be disseminated to media members and
organizations. The motivation for this initiative is to capitalize on the momentum created by the
Symposium, and to immediately put the suite of educational products into the hands and onto the
screens of the two groups whose engagement is crucial to the success of the mission. That is:

Current and future members of the media community, since they make the
choices and decisions about whether and how geographers and geographic
considerations are incorporated in a story. This direct outreach to members of the
media is a critical first step towards strengthening the geography-media
relationship.

Our academic and vocational colleagues who are in position to incorporate the
suite of educational products into the curricula of university, college and other
post-secondary programs in journalism, communications, broadcasting, and
related media and multimedia fields. This is an indirect way for the geographic
community to relate to practicing members of the media community, but it
appears likely that it could yield a very high, sustained rate of return on our
investment.

34

References
Wellar, B. (Editor) (1981). National and Regional Economic Development Strategies:
Perspectives on Canada’s Problems and Prospects. University of Ottawa Press.
Wellar, B. (2000). Newspapers as a Source of Fact and Opinion on Pedestrians’ Safety, Comfort,
Convenience: A Keyword-Based Literature Search and Review. RMOC Project No. 912-
33409 (Walking Security Index). Region of Ottawa-Carleton and University of Ottawa.

Acknowledgements
This presentation is a work in progress in the true sense of the phrase, in that contributions of
materials and advice are being received even as the (first) pre-symposium draft if being prepared
for transmitting to symposium organizers for posting. The following is therefore an interim note
of appreciation to several individuals whose assistance was instrumental in completing this initial
version of the presentation: Daniel Cossette, Laboratory for Applied Geomatics and GIS Science
(LAGGIS), Department of Geography, University of Ottawa; Bob LeDrew and Sophie Nadeau,
Media Relations, University of Ottawa; Patrick Dare, city editorial page editor, Ottawa Citizen;
and, Marjorie Wellar, text editor.

As usual, the content and all errors of the document are the author’s responsibility.

Biographical Note
Dr. Barry Wellar, Professor of Geography, University of Ottawa, is Policy and Research
Advisor, Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, Director of the Pedestrian Space Forum, and
Member, Canadian Institute of Planners and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. Dr.
Wellar is Past Chair of the Applied Geography Specialty Group, Association of American
Geographers, Past President of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, former
President of the Carlingwood Action Committee (Ottawa), and former Vice-President of the
Federation of Citizens' Associations of Ottawa-Carleton.

Prior to joining the University of Ottawa in 1979 he was Assistant Professor and Research
Associate at the University of Kansas, and then Senior Research Officer, Director, and Senior
Policy Advisor, Ministry of State for Urban Affairs, Government of Canada.

Dr. Wellar has received numerous awards, including the Award for Service to Government or
Business (Association of Canadian Geographers), the Horwood Award (Urban and Regional
Information Systems Association) the Anderson Medal (Association of American Geographers),
the Merit Award (National Association of Towns and Townships), The Hall of Fame Award
(Timiskaming District Secondary School), and The Rector's Award for Service to the University
Through Media and Community Relations (University of Ottawa).

Dr. Wellar has authored more than 200 publications, given more than 350 conference, seminar,
and workshop presentations, and has been a principal in more than 700 media stories.

Barry Wellar received his undergraduate degrees (B.A., Hon. B.A.) from Queen’s University
(1964, 1965) and his graduate degrees (M.Science and Ph D) from Northwestern University
(1967, 1969). He was born in Latchford, Ontario, and attended Cobalt High School.

35

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