This book adopts a unique perspective on journalism by considering it as a practice of
cartography. Through every aspect of their work journalists describe and define their
community and situate that community within the larger world. With words images and sounds
journalists: sketch out the boundaries of community define its values identify key components
of its political economic and cultural infrastructure describe its constituents position
community with respect to neighbouring communities highlight other constituencies with which
this community has important ties and relegate to the margins great portions of the rest of
the world. These news reports create mental maps for news audiences cartographies of the
imagination from whatever news sources they draw upon. Because access to the world is highly
mediated it is largely through news reporting and commentary that we come to know that world.
Thus these maps of the news wield considerable symbolic power feeding the social imaginary.
News media power is two-fold. First it is the power of selection one of inclusion and
exclusion exposure and suppression. Second it is the power of categorization entailing
classification definition and suppression.
