A proliferation of web-based maps have appeared depicting many different aspects of the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). In this commentary, we consider the usage of web-based mapping during the COVID-19 pandemic and argue that web maps have been widely misused for delivering public information on this fast moving, epidemiologically complex, and geographically unbounded process.
CarrollLNAuAPDetwilerLT, et al. (2014) Visualization and analytics tools for infectious disease epidemiology: a systematic review. Journal of Biomedical Informatics51: 287–298.
4.
CramptonJWKrygierJ (2005) An introduction to critical cartography. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies4(1): 11–33.
5.
DepouxAMartinSKarafillakisE, et al. (2020) The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Travel Medicine27(3): taaa031.
6.
DodgeMKitchinR (2000) Exposing the ‘second text’ of maps of the net. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication5(4): JCMC543.
7.
HumprechtEEsserF (2018) Mapping digital journalism: comparing 48 news websites from six countries. Journalism19(4): 500–518.
8.
KitchinRLinehanDO’CallaghanC, et al. (2013) Public geographies through social media. Dialogues in Human Geography3(1): 56–72.
9.
LiGLiYZhangJ, et al. (2017) A design feature and cross-culture based comparative evaluation of web maps. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting61(1): 818–822.
10.
McQuireS (2019) One map to rule them all? Google maps as digital technical object. Communication and the Public4(2): 150–165.
MonmonierM (1989) Maps With the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.
13.
MonmonierM (2018) How to Lie with Maps. 3rd ed. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.
14.
UsherN (2020) News cartography and epistemic authority in the era of big data: journalists as map-makers, map-users, and map-subjects. New Media & Society22(2): 247–263.
