Abstract
This chapter first traces the evolution of GIS from its earlier focus on automated cartography (organizing geospatial information) to its current status as media, with an emphasis on the geoweb (organizing information geospatially). Using Adams’ (2009) tetradic framework on geographies of media, this chapter then presents a preliminary analysis on geographies of media and mediated geographies as manifested through the ever-growing geoweb in the age of big data and open science. As the geoweb increasingly becomes both the container of and the contained by spaces and places, fruitful research can be carried out at the intersection of GIScience and communication geography by examining spaces and places as both contents and contexts for the geoweb.
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Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to Paul Adams, Samuel Kay, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have significantly improved this chapter. Thanks are also due to Jens Blegvad of the Ohio State Center for Urban and Regional Analysis for making our data collection possible. Research for this article is a result of a collaborative research project, “A GIScience Approach for Assessing the Quality, Potential Applications, and Impact of Volunteered Geographic Information,” funded by the US National Science Foundation (2009–1014), award # 1048100. The usual disclaimers apply.
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Sui, D., Zhao, B. (2015). GIS as Media Through the Geoweb. In: Mains, S., Cupples, J., Lukinbeal, C. (eds) Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9969-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9969-0_12
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