The Storm Map as Digital Ambiguity

Abstract

This article focuses on how digital platforms mediate disasters in the form of storm maps generating struggles over knowledge and authority. We focus on the dissemination of storm maps during Hurricane Dorian, one of the most severe hurricanes on record, as an example of an environmental disaster event that was widely circulated for public consumption. The storm map has become one of the most significant artifacts of the information age. Digital means now transcend the typical uses of the storm map as a guide to disaster planning, leading to two forms of digital ambiguity: hegemonic ambiguity and popular ambiguity. Hegemonic ambiguity refers to the uses of political power through digital tools to disrupt knowledge circulation and scientific legitimacy. Popular ambiguity involves digital technologies increasing the sheer number of perspectives by localizing representations. Actors incorporate smart phones, drones, and photogrammetric, remote-sensing, and GIS software into heterogeneous manifestations of the storm map. The comparison between these two forms of ambiguity demonstrates how digital platforms transform the underlying structure of authority, alter connections between knowledge production and dissemination, and multiply how disaster-related events are represented and interpreted throughout society.