Journalists tell stories. In this Where 2.0 presentation, Matthew Ericson talks about how the New York Time's team of designers, cartographers, and developers worked as journalists to create interactive maps and charts that told stories about the 2008 presidential election.

Every map has pros and cons, Ericson explains. Starting with examples from the 19th century, Ericson tells how the The New York Times has worked to balance clarity and complexity in its election maps. Rather than focusing on mere red and blue states, the Time's maps showed the 2008 outcome in county and state trends from previous elections.

Ericson also takes time to discuss the tools, technology, and processes the Times uses for creating interactive maps and charts.

Matthew Ericson is the deputy graphics director at The New York Times, where helps oversee a department of journalists, artists and programmers who produce the interactive information graphics for NYTimes.com, as well as all the graphics for the print newspaper. He joined The Times in March 2003 as the national graphics editor and has produced graphics on a wide variety of topics, including the 2004 and 2008 Elections, the War in Iraq, and the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Before coming to The Times, he was a graphic artist and Web site editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Resources

• Matthew Ericson
• New York Times - 2008 Presidential Election Map