Le dessous des cartes


Mapping the World is a weekly geopolitics programme airs on the Franco-German channel Arte. The show uses maps as visual support. Previous hosts include the geographer and geo-politician Jean-Christophe Victor, son of the explorer Paul-Emile Victor.
The content of the show is jointly prepared by Jean-Christophe Victor and the "Laboratoire d'études politiques et d'analyses cartographiques", known as LEPAC, and of which he is the founder and main shareholder.

Programming and format

The show was first aired from 1990 to 1992, on La Sept until it stopped broadcasting, and has been on air since 1992 on the Franco-German channel Arte. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 20h00 and rebroadcast several times a week. The format of the show has changed little since the first episode. However, the episode length expanded from 7 to 11 minutes. The transition from 11 to 26 minutes referred to by Jean-Christophe Victor in 2002 was abandoned.

Structure of the show

In general, the show runs as follows:
Topographic maps are based on the Ordnance Survey Oxford Cartographers. The most commonly used Map projection is that of Eckert. The show also uses satellite imagery from Google Earth and the first use was in the episode named: "Nigeria, rich state poor country."

Program production cycle

The Laboratoire d'études politiques et d'analyses cartographiques produces about forty episodes a year for the channel Arte. The subjects for most episodes are decided a year in advance to allow time for production. This delay in the selection of themes allows a certain hindsight regarding the chosen topic. However, on occasion, the topic of an episode is more closely related to current events. For example, the episode "Tsunami, a natural phenomenon" aired just three months after the events in South-East Asia..

The subjects of the show

Of the 300 programs, 210 have a geographical approach and 84 have a thematic approach. 6 issues remain unclassifiable: introspective or dreamers.
For information and the geographical most commonly accepted:
Anecdote: The issue of 29 March 2000, for the week of April 1, is a parody of the show itself. The producing team of the show made what could be the episode of 1 April 3000 by offering a retrospective view of the past thousand years.

The methods and objectives of the programme

In a special 10th birthday episode named "La méthode du Dessous des Cartes", the aims of the show were outlined:
The main, oft repeated aim of the show is "to understand rather than to inform."

Positions

The main positions of the show and its sponsors are as follows: in favor of Human rights, Sustainable development, and the Proposals for a Palestinian state, and against the concepts of Ethnic cleansing, Just War and The Clash of Civilizations.

Awards

Books

Each semester, Arte Video and LEPAC publish a DVD. The DVD includes 12 to 20 episodes of the show regarding a theme. DVDs released so far: