The State as a ‘Power Container’: The Role of News Media Cartography in Contemporary Geopolitical Discourse

Abstract

The news media play an important role in creating and disseminating geopolitical discourse. This paper explores the role of news maps in geopolitical discourse with reference to the potential super-power status of key states, specifically China and Russia as members of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and in the case of Russia, the NORCs (Northern Rim Countries – Canada, Russia, several Scandinavian states and the USA). It also explores references to ‘threats’ to a stable interstate system (resource wars, regional instability, ‘rouge states’). The paper argues that the concept of the state as ‘power container’ provides a key to understanding how maps operate as a significant element within geopolitical discourse. Maps provide spatial and geostrategic context to the narratives being deployed by news providers on such matters as China’s projection of power. The paper is based on the findings of a comprehensive survey of maps in the UK ‘quality press’ in 2009.

Keywords:

• news media maps
• geopolitics
• map design

Notes

1 http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/05/indian_pakistani_and_chinese_border_disputes (accessed 23 May 2011). This website is cited in an article on India and Pakistan in The Economist, 21 May 2011, p. 70 – the box states “Sadly, India censors maps that show the current effective border, insisting that only its full territorial claim be shown. It is more intolerant on this issue than either China or Pakistan. Indian readers will therefore probably be deprived of the map on the first page of this briefing. Unlike their government, we think our Indian readers can face political reality. Those who want to see an accurate depiction of the various claims can see our interactive map at Economist.com/asianborder’. This example illustrates amply the power of maps.

2 In June 2011, the Philippines announced that it was renaming the sea the ‘West Philippine Sea’. Such naming holds immense significance, and creates major problems for atlas and map publishers seeking to sell their product within a disputed region.