Laws of Media

GIS is a tool that is used for both problem solving and a media used for communication. I believe that using GIS, as a media used for communication, is more important for today. I believe this communicative rationality because of how prevalent that the technology that uses GIS has become in a person’s typical day. “GIS increasingly have become a means to communicate certain aspects of the real world to the general public” (Sui). Everyday one of the first things I do when I wake up is look at the weather for the day on my phone. I believe this is a prime example of how GIS communicates an aspect of the real world, the weather, to me, a part of the general public.

Anybody with a smart phone has the ability to use the GPS in their phone for various different reasons. With the rise in social media, there has also been a rise in sharing where you’ve been. Whether it’s where you’re currently eating, or where you’re checking-in at, people are using GIS technology as media to share their locations to communicate to their friends and family. The top social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all have features to share the users location. A person doesn’t have to really even plan anything when traveling somewhere anymore. They can easily get a custom route from Google Maps, and find things to do and where to eat by using Yelp. Both of these use location services to get the information the user will need. All of the new advancements in technologies use GIS as a media of communication.

GIS easily follows McLuhan’s four Laws of Media, extend, reverse, retrieve, and obsolesce. The first law of media, extend, states that using technology will extend your sense and abilities. A good example of a GIS media that extends a person’s senses and abilities is the app Waze, which is the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation application. The app extends people’s ability to communicated with each other and provide a real-time traffic and road hazard updates....