Specht, D. 2018. Did You Find the World or Did You Make it Up? Media, Communications and Geography in the Digital Age. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. 13 (2), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.298
| Title | Did You Find the World or Did You Make it Up? Media, Communications and Geography in the Digital Age |
|---|---|
| Type | Edited issue |
| Authors | Specht, D. |
| Abstract | Geography, media, and communications have been closely linked since the 16th Century. Just as the advent of the printing press and new modes of measurement changed the media landscape, so too did it change that of geography and cartography. Now, in the digital age we are presented with ever more instruments of measurement (big data, algorithms, UGC, VGI etc.), ever more far-reaching versions of the printing press (Web 2.0, Social Media etc.), and the waters are muddied further by the development of participatory-GIS systems, and the (re-)birth of Neogeography which purportedly offers up a challenge to the status quo. Thus, it becomes essential that, just as we might question the 16th century map-makers, we must now question data analytics, algorithms and their architects, as well as the tools used to communicate these new spaces. The bringing together of the theories of Geography and of Media and Communications allows for an alternate, nuanced, and a spatially grounded approach to envisioning the myriad ways in which the digital age mediates social, economic and political experiences and, in particular, in the increasingly technologically informed media and communications sector, allowing us to ask, ‘did you find the world or did you make it up?’. |
| Keywords | Geography, Media, Communications, GIS, Mapping, Social Media, Digital Media |
| Journal | Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture |
| Journal citation | 13 (2), pp. 1-13 |
| ISSN | 1744-6716 |
| Year | 2018 |
| Publisher | University of Westminster Press |
| Publisher's version | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.298 |
| Web address (URL) | https://www.westminsterpapers.org/articles/10.16997/wpcc.298/ |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 31 Oct 2018 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |