The Map Communication Model is a theory in
cartography
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...
that characterizes mapping as a process of transmitting geographic information via the map from the cartographer to the end-user.
["The map communication model and critical cartography"](_blank)
Ubikcan blogspot 8.13.2006. Retrieved 3 September 2008. It was perhaps the first paradigm to gain widespread acceptance in cartography in the international cartographic community and between academic and practising cartographers.
Overview
By the mid-20th century, according to Crampton (2001) "cartographers as
Arthur H. Robinson
Arthur H. Robinson (January 5, 1915 – October 10, 2004) was an American geographer and cartographer, who was professor in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1947 until he retired in 1980. He was a prolific w ...
and others had begun to see the map as primarily a communication tool, and so developed a specific model for map communication, the map communication model (MCM)".
[Crampton, J.W. (2001). "Maps as Social Constructions: Power, Communication, and Visualization". In: ''Progress in Human Geography''. 25, 235-252] This model, according to Andrews (1988) "can be grouped with the other major
communication models of the time, such as the Shannon-Weaver and Lasswell models of communication. The map communication model led to a whole new body of research, methodologies and map design paradigms"
[Andrews, S.K. (1988). "Applications of a Cartographic Communication Model to a Tactual Map Design". In: ''The American Cartographer''. 15, 183-95.]
One of the implications of this communication model according to Crampton (2001) "endorsed an “epistemic break” that shifted our understandings of maps as communication systems to investigating them in terms of fields of power relations and exploring the “mapping environments in which knowledge is constructed”... This involved examining the social contexts in which maps were both produced and used, a departure from simply seeing maps as artifacts to be understood apart from this context".
[Crampton, J.W. (2001). "Maps as Social Constructions: Power, Communication, and Visualization". In: ''Progress in Human Geography''. 25, 235-252]
A second implication of this model is the presumption inherited from
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. ...
that it is possible to separate facts from values. As Harley stated: Maps are never value-free images; except in the narrowest Euclidean sense they are not in themselves either true or false. Both in the selectivity of their content and in their signs and styles of representation maps are a way of conceiving, articulating, and structuring the human world which is biased towards, promoted by, and exerts influence upon particular sets of social relations. By accepting such premises it becomes easier to see how appropriate they are to manipulation by the powerful in society.
[Richard Donohue (2008)]
Critical cartography
. Retrieved 3 September 2008.
History
Although this was a postwar discovery, the Map Communication Model (MCM) has its roots in
information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley, in the 1920s, and Claude Shannon in the 1940s. ...
developed in the
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
industry before the war began. Mathematician, inventor, and teacher
Claude Shannon
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory".
As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts In ...
worked at
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
after completing his Ph.D. at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
in 1940. Shannon applied mathematical theory to information and demonstrated that communication could be reduced to binary digits (
bit
The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...
s) of positive and negative circuits. This information could be coded and transmitted across a
noisy interface
Interface or interfacing may refer to:
Academic journals
* ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society
* '' Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics''
* '' Int ...
without losing any meaning. Once the information was received it was then decoded by the listener; the integrity of the information remained intact. In producing meaningful sounds that could be measured for quality, Shannon produced the beginning of information theory and
digital communication
Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or p ...
through circuits of on and off
switches
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type ...
.
Shannon developed his ideas more thoroughly in the 1940s at the same time that
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
and
cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...
Arthur H. Robinson
Arthur H. Robinson (January 5, 1915 – October 10, 2004) was an American geographer and cartographer, who was professor in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1947 until he retired in 1980. He was a prolific w ...
returned from the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
during which he had served as cartographer for the military. Robinson found that cartographers were significantly limited because artists could make more effective maps than geographers. Upon returning from the war, Robinson worked to remedy this problem at
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...
where he was a graduate student. His ''The Look of Maps'' emphasizes the importance of lettering, map design, map structure, color, and technique.
Information theory helped turn the map into a medium of communicating information. Although Robinson never articulated a map model that could govern the new scientific pursuit of maps, his role in the war led to an understanding of the practical need for maps based on science not art. Robinson opened the door for others to apply Shannon’s ''Mathematical Theory of Communication'' to the design of maps. British geographer Christopher Board developed the first MCM in 1967 but it was cumbersome and poorly measured a map’s information quality. The Czech Geographer Kolácný’s 1969 version made several key improvements to Board’s model. These versions of the MCM helped cartographers realize the problems that Robinson noted as a war cartographer and helped articulate the discipline in terms of science.
References
{{reflist
External links
"The map communication model and critical cartography" Ubikcan blogspot 8.13.2006.
Cartography
Information theory