Hemisphere Bias

Any shot of a spacecraft or other object orbiting or approaching the Earth will only show that side of the planet where the target audience of the production lives. It will almost always be in full sunlight as well, regardless of whether ground-based scenes in that hemisphere are in day or night.

The one big exception is when they copy "The Blue Marble", a famous space shot of Earth. That shot is not only centered on Madagascar, but the original photograph has the Earth "upside-down" (i.e. the South Pole was at the top of the picture).

See also Creator Provincialism.

Examples of Hemisphere Bias include:

Anime & Manga

• Anime set in space usually show the eastern coast of Asia, with the islands of Japan positioned prominently.
• Averted in Heroman, where most shots are of North America, where the show takes place, rather than Japan, where it was made.
• In the first episode of Uchuu Senkan Yamato (better known in the United States as Star Blazers), Captain Okita (Avatar in the US) monologues while looking down upon the devastated Earth. It's a red desert, but if one looks closely, the Korean peninsula, Japan and Australia can all be made out.

Comics

• Averted in Explorers on the Moon. In the view of "our good old Earth, seen from over 6,000 miles", South America and Africa are the most visible continents; Europe is obscured from readers by a protruding periscope.

Films -- Live Action

• When the aliens arrived in Independence Day we see North America, of course. It was noted that to do this, the Earth's tilt was wrong for July.
• Lampshaded in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, when Mike and the robots are watching This Island Earth. As the heroes return to Earth, a clear shot of North America is visible, and Crow remarks, "Ah, just like we left it, with the U.S.A. in charge!"
• The 1924 Soviet science fiction film Aelita has the Queen of Mars fall in love with the protagonist while watching him via a telescope. Since our hero is naturally a good Soviet citizen most of the shots of Earth center on Eurasia.
• Averted in Star Trek: First Contact, where a 21st century woman's first view of Earth from orbit is of Australia. Montana (her home), she's told, won't be in view for a little while yet.

Live Action TV

• In Doctor Who shots hang over the British Isles, typically speaking.
  • Though this is averted at the end of Earthshock - the views of Earth quite clearly show Indonesia, China and Australia.
• The third season of the new Battlestar Galactica Reimagined ended with a shot of Earth which showed North America. Averted in the fourth season, which shows Africa prominently.
• Averted in the series finale of Stargate Atlantis, for one small part. When Sheppard's F-302 is in orbit around Earth, it is very clearly over Italy.
• The logo for USA Today shows a stylized globe with North and South America facing us.
• Averted in the remake of Survivors, wherein each episode ended with a sudden pullback to a view of the Earth...centred on Gibraltar. The series itself was filmed and set in and around Manchester.

Music Video

• Boldly averted in the opening moments of the video for Peter Gabriel's 1992 song "Steam", when a camera zooms into and past an upside-down Earth over Africa.

Video Games

• In Halo, whenever there's a view of Earth from space it centers on Africa. This is most likely because pretty much all of the Earth levels in the games are set in Africa.
• Averted in Iji, in which the cutscene showing the Komato fleet approaching Earth has the Earth centred at South America. Averted even more so when you consider that the creator is actually Swedish.
• In Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and its sequel, the "victory" image after the final level shows Asia and Japan. In the Americanized Elite Beat Agents, the results-screen image is of North America.
• Averted in X3: Terran Conflict. Egosoft is in Germany and mainly targets Europe, but the view of Earth is centered on Ecuador in South America.
• Averted in Mass Effect 3: the development team is stationed in Vancouver and the game begins from this city, but the final mission is set in London, and only Europe is clearly visible during the approach to Earth.
  • Averted in Mass Effect 1 as well. You never actually land on Earth, but there is a side mission to Luna whereby Shepard unlocks his/her specialization. The "Blue Marble" view of Earth looks to be centered on Asia.

Web Original

• Spoofed by Harry Enfield, where a fake Imperial-era PSA series has in its opening credits a shot of the Earth with a Russia-sized British Isles in view.
• A variant where only the USA continental mass is shown is seen on Homestar Runner.
• Fenspace: The wiki entry for Earth shows a shot of the planet, centered on Australia - the first (and, for a noticeably long time, only) country on Earth to be openly friendly to the Fen.

Western Animation

• Spoofed in the opening credits of Moral Orel, where the Earth is seen from an angle placing the United States in full view, and there's nothing there but the U.S.: no Canada, no Latin America, just water.
• In the Looney Tunes cartoon "Haredevil Hare," Bugs Bunny, from on the Moon, admires the "beautiful Earth out tonight"; he's looking at the Western hemisphere, of course.

Real Life

• Averted in this video from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. We go from the Himalayas to the edge of the known universe and back again.