ERIC Number: EJ1110791
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1933 8341
EISSN: N/A
Digital Geography and the Race for the White House
Kenreich, Todd W.
Geography Teacher, v13 n3 p141-144 2016
With the 2016 presidential election right around the corner, geography provides a dynamic view of the spatial patterns and processes that shape the electorate. The major presidential campaigns know that a winning strategy must use geography to make informed decisions about where to allocate limited resources such as money and staff. In the end, winning a state may require focusing only on key demographic groups in select areas of the state. While geography will not determine the winner, it can help a campaign make prudent decisions about where to invest its resources between now and Election Day. If you and your students are having trouble predicting how the upcoming election will play out, there is a good reason for this. According to statisticians at 270towin.com, there are more than two quadrillion patterns of blue and red for the United States electoral map if it is assumed that each state and the District of Columbia only awards its electoral votes to the Republican or Democratic candidate. Yet, for political geographers, the dualistic "red state/blue state" view of the United States quickly gives way to a complex mosaic with many hues. In this article, the author provides a short list of online resources for teachers and students. With these resources, students can place the political rhetoric and media sound bites of this election into a larger context as they use web maps to visualize historical and recent electoral data.
Descriptors: Geography Instruction, Political Campaigns, Elections, Resource Allocation, Geographic Regions, Teaching Methods, Geography, Decision Making, Demography, Prediction, Voting, Political Attitudes, Statistical Data, Web Sites
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Guides - Classroom - Teacher; Guides - Classroom - Learner
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Students; Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A