Like lying with statistics and charts, one can also lie with maps. While we can manipulate charts to tell a different story, maps can do the same thing, depending on the way one manipulates it.
These maps below show the percent minority in the Hartford region. However, they show it much differently and one can assume different things by looking at them both.
These maps above, using the gradient feature on google fusion, show where minority rates are concentrated more in the Hartford region. It shows the contrast and one is able to understand that looking at this, where more minority rates live.
These maps below, on the other hand, show a different story and are much harder to understand. A gradient feature shows the differences within the areas through different shades of one color, while using the bucket feature, you manipulate the graph with completely different colors, and makes it harder to understand which area has more amounts of minority. One can see that different areas have different concentrations, but people could think that oh, a color is darker, which means there’s more; however, this is not true necessarily. Also, one can also change the percentage scale, as I did.
The way I scaled the percentages is not even in any sense, so it is harder to understand and grasp which areas really have more minority. In addition, the colors I used also make it more confusing, because 90%-100% minority is a lighter shade of color. This exercise shows how important it is for one to really look at the legend and keys of maps to make sure they really are understanding what the map is supposed to show.