This event is part of Cartography on the Frontline, a programme of events exploring the links between map making and war making, organised by the LivingMaps Network in partnership with Pushkin House.
The War Map as Spectacle: cartographies of terror and conflict in contemporary news media
In his talk, Peter Vujakovic will look at how maps are used in news and related media to support and construct threat discourses at a range of scales, from the local to the global. For this purpose he will draw on material from several major surveys of the UK elite press as well as other news providers worldwide. Drawing on Guy Debord’s critique of the Society of the Spectacle, and the concept of the neo-Baroque, the talk will examine how maps can be used to support and justify military intervention.
About the speakers
Peter Vujakovic is Emeritus Professor of Geography at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has been researching the role of maps in society since the 1980s, including their use in development education, the news media, and the sense of place and identity. He is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography.
Image credit: John Seb Barber