THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCATOR MAPS IN INCREASING READER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF FOREIGN-NEWS

This study tested the influence of two techniques of providing context ual geographical information in foreign news stories - the traditional method of weaving it into the text and the increasingly common method of including a map with the story. Results of the experiment indicate d that newspaper readers' understanding of the geographical context of a foreign event can be increased either by building geographical info rmation into the text or by including a map, but the most effective te chnique is the redundant one of providing geographical information bot h in the text and via a map.