How to read the map
A map of reporting is not a map of everything that happened. This guide explains how to distinguish a news record from an incident, read a location responsibly, and check a claim before repeating it.
Start with the question, then narrow the view
Choose a country, time window and topic before comparing reports. Combat covers coded attacks and fighting; military activity includes movements, posture, aid and some statements; other news includes diplomacy, humanitarian reporting and civil affairs. These are automated groupings of GDELT codes, not editorial confirmation that a war action occurred. A headline mentioning an army can still be about politics or history.
Read the two clocks separately
The timeline uses the time GDELT indexed a record. The event date is a separate field with day-level precision. A record indexed this morning may describe yesterday’s incident or an older event. Use the older-event switch deliberately, and check the original publication date. A fresh timestamp is not proof of a fresh attack.
A precise-looking pin can represent an approximate place
Coordinates are supplied by the dataset. They may describe a named place, a region centre or a country centroid rather than the incident site. The report panel shows this location precision. Cluster numbers summarize nearby records at your current zoom; zoom in to inspect individual pins. When identical coordinates are shared, expanded icons have lines back to the original location. Decimal coordinates do not create street-level certainty.
Count records, not casualties or independent witnesses
Several articles, syndicated copies or repeated indexing can refer to one event. Conversely, one article can produce several records. A larger cluster means more records in this loaded selection, not a more severe incident. The reported source count is a dataset field; it is not our assessment of independent corroboration. Do not add these counts to estimate casualties or military strength.
Open the source before sharing
Read the original story and distinguish a reporter’s finding from a statement attributed to a government, armed group or witness. Look for named sources, publication and correction dates, and independent reporting about the same place and time. A marker is a discovery aid, not evidence by itself. Machine translation may change names, negation or military terms; compare the original wording when meaning matters.
Understand what is missing
This browser downloads public files while the page is open. Missing files, network failures, media access, language coverage and reporting delays all affect what appears. Empty areas do not establish that an area is safe or that nothing occurred. Exports contain only loaded and filtered records. Use official local guidance for safety and emergency decisions; this map is not a warning service, evacuation tool or operational military picture.