A tetradic analysis of GIS and society using McLuhan's law of the media

32Citations
Citations of this article
72Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The social implications of GIS have been debated over the past five years among scholars in several disciplines. GIS have been either conceived by practitioners as value-free, neutral tools for problem-solving or castigated by critical social theorists as socially biased technologies serving only corporate and state interests. Neither of these polarized views is very helpful in understanding the complex relationship between GIS and society. This paper argues that GIS are increasingly becoming media for communicating various crucial social and environmental information to the general public. By reconceptualizing GIS as media, the paper conducts a detailed tetradic analysis on the social implications of GIS using Marshall McLuhan's law of media. The analysis reveals the paradoxical and ambivalent nature of GIS technology. To make GIS fulfill democratic ideals in society, this paper calls for a shift of perspective, from viewing them as instruments for problem-solving to viewing them as media for communication. This shift from instrumental to communicative rationality enables us to examine more critically and holistically how space, people and environment have been represented, manipulated and visualized in GIS and thus promotes a more critical and democratic GIS practice. © / Canadian Association of Geographers.

References Powered by Scopus

1306Citations
259Readers
Get full text

Naive geography

386Citations
245Readers
Get full text
310Citations
354Readers
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Get full text

The convergence of GIS and social media: Challenges for GIScience

310Citations
580Readers
Get full text
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Sui, D. Z., & Goodchild, M. F. (2003). A tetradic analysis of GIS and society using McLuhan’s law of the media. Canadian Geographer, 47(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-0064.02e08

Readers over time

‘08‘09‘10‘11‘12‘13‘14‘15‘16‘17‘18‘19‘20‘21‘22‘23036912

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 39

70%

Researcher 10

18%

Lecturer / Post doc 4

7%

Professor / Associate Prof. 3

5%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Social Sciences 25

50%

Environmental Science 10

20%

Earth and Planetary Sciences 8

16%

Arts and Humanities 7

14%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0