Stage No. 6 – Criticism –

Theresa Borkowski’s story map informs its viewers on the spread of the AIDS epidemic across a wide array of subject groups in California. The time they center their maps depicting the impact AIDS had on different groups is 1985, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in California.

“I chose to research 1985 because I wanted to account for the time that had passed to ensure that my data was at the height of the epidemic.”

Theresa Borkowski

Borkowski’s story map was overall concise and straightforward, but the explanations they gave on the first four slides worked especially well in setting up the presentation. The first and second slides worked to give the reader some contextual understanding of the environment the AIDS epidemic took place in. The third and fourth explained well what AIDS, scientifically was. how it could be spread, and the symptoms its carriers experienced.

However. For a presentation that’s goal was to inform on the impact AIDS had on various groups and communities across California, it did very little to show it’s viewers the realistic impact AIDS had on the groups they discussed. Not only was the legend below all of their maps a dark grey color on top of a dark grey background, the colors used to identify the varying topics (ethnicity, age, speed(?)) were described through words or numbers instead of the colors they were identified with on the map. Making it difficult for me to say with certainty which color identified which group. There were also no numbers identifying how much quantified the number 1 darkest shade. There were also unfortunately no citations for me to go to in order to better understand the impact of AIDs. I don’t believe numbers are the exclusive, best way to understand impact either though. Throughout the presentation I felt that the descriptions accompanying the maps and legends were sterile and at times I found myself thinking “Why is this important?” Despite having relatives who were directly impacted by AIDS and identifying as part of the “alphabet mafia(as the young ones are calling it nowadays)”. Of course, my opinions are purely subjective and could be wrong though.

The final two slides in the conclusion worked well to draw viewers back in through the good information on all of the possible medical treatments available to treat AIDS today and the progress it took to get here.