After seeing all those troop deployment maps online, the Poynter Online crew decided it would be interesting to make one for journalists covering the war with Iraq.

A map of journalist deployments would show what areas were being covered, and how densely; it would track journalists' movements as the conflict progressed; and it would give a sense of the balance between embedded and independent reporting in and around Iraq.

The Department of Defense has a master list of the participants in the embedding program, but they wouldn't share it with Poynter Online. They wouldn't even give any figures more specific than the total numbers of embeds, around 600. The Pentagon has understandable security concerns -- and that's why a responsible map would only paint journalists' locations in broad strokes.

We decided to make the master list ourselves. We decided to make the master list ourselves. After a few days spent scouring AJR.org's newspaper directory and a few more coding the map application in Flash, we're releasing our Media Map of Iraq with 170 journalists included. Take a look:


Now, this first draft only accounts for a fraction of the corps of journalists around Iraq, which probably numbers more than 1,000. Some "master list"! Moreover, a map that draws from dozens of data sources in a context of conflict and chaos is bound to have tons of errors.

That's where you come in.

If you know of someone who's missing or mislabeled, please let us know. Make sure to include a name, news organization, and military unit or, if you're writing about an independent reporter, a recent dateline. With your help, we'll make the map more accurate and thus more valuable.

The map is best used in conjunction with maps on other sites that show what's actually going on in Iraq; I keep an eye on the Washington Post's, for instance.

It can also be used as a gateway into the coverage. As you click around, you'll be able to launch Google News searches keyed to specific bylines that interest you.

We'll continue to work on the media map, adding and changing features as we go. If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to e-mail.