Understanding Media Geography in short

 Media Geography systematically analyses the relationship between geography and Media communication and shows how geographical approaches open up familiar and unfamiliar aspects of communication for analysis and discussion. Their link have closely studied since 16^th century. It has changed and have evolved with ever more growing technology and instruments of measurements.

Back when printing press was invented it took a sharp changes in media landscapes along with that of geography and the cartography. Then came the phase of industrialisation when handmade printing press shifted to mechanical and electrical mode printing which started printing things more efficiently and precisely. Followed by this came another form of mass media which took these form to great length. And now the still emerging digital landscape of media and communication though, brings shared values for a better of understanding in this form.

Although the given discipline are not closely related or have similar methodological foundations but they have been researched and a number of texts have already been explored, most notably in Geographies of Communication by Falkheimer and Jansson (2006). The interlinkage of Media and Geography has been mentioned in the book Taxonomy of the Geography of Media and communications (2011) by Adam. There are mentions of at least four key areas where it is extensively found and is described as:

 

1. Place-in-media (reporting on events related to their location);

  - Often we get news based only from a typical geographical location. In fact there are several channels which are solely made for the purpose to boost the perception of any particular geographical location. For example: We have dedicated Doordarshan channels of almost all states of India on which only news or any programmes related to the respective area is only telecasted. This is not only limited just to mass media, even in print; there are several region based newspapers and magazines in which only those languages and dialects are used which is majorly utilized by people of that geographical location. Moreover, live sports matches are also telecasted in language specified only to one geographical location.

 

2. Media-in-places (changing the meaning of places through using media in them);

- It is about places we have formed a perception of based on what we see in the media, makes world seem smaller, more understanding of world. Information age, contrast other representations, can we understand a place if we never develop a sense of place there? No. It is the media which makes us understand as to how a geographical concentrated population is inter-twined with media and its understanding with locales. The geographical location can be in any aspect be it a house, a school, a street or a workplace or even a large stadium with big screens. It’s all part of the same book.

 

3. Media-in-spaces (infrastructure of communications)

- This mostly deals with the all physical aspect of media that helps connect people of different geographies. The physical aspects here is all the communication infrastructures that are required to build a proper functioning of media. It includes all forms of cables, wires or signal and all sorts of mapped and analysed physical layouts. It helps in understanding all the infrastructure that has been developed since the inception of wired and wireless communication with the passage of time. Right from the beginning when first radio signal was sent to the ongoing present use of fastest mode of communication i.e. internet, the whole mapping and studying of this data is what helps in understanding the lapse in communication in a particular geography. For example, there are many certain countries where mobile phones hasn’t reached yet and the people over there are yet to use any method of communication either wired or wireless. Hence, this kind of study can help in making people more accessible to the current advanced form of communication.

 

4. Spaces-in-media (topologies and symbols that move ideas).

- This mostly deals with the information that are carried using any media in regard to any concentrated geographical population, be it individual or a group or a whole community. It mostly makes you understand the kind the spatial relation it helps to create among the individual or community. Any given information or data through media is instantly disseminated in this era of Internet. It is due to this fact that there have been its consequences when the provided information whether true or not is not handled carefully and responsibly. It have been in notice of today’s population that the use of media for any changes in geography of any particular location is possible according to their desire and greed. It is due to this fact that several restrictions by the ruling government is applied onto its use and dissemination of information.

 

In terms of the study of media, critical geography subordinates the image as coordinates of information to the bodily manipulation of that information. As interface or instrument, the image does not comprise a representation of a pre-existent and independent reality, but rather a means for the geographer to intervene in the production of the ‘real,’ which we can understand to be a rendering of spatial data. Media changes our concept of what an image is – because it turns a viewer into an active user. As a result, an illusionistic image is no longer something a subject simply looks at, comparing it with memories of represented reality to judge its reality effect. The image is something the user actively goes into, zooming in or clicking on individual parts with the assumption that they contain more information.

Media is inherently geo-visual to present a critical understanding of these various cultural representations. We can use critical analysis to contextualize media productions that are presented as universal and thus make visible alternative narratives that allow us to see more than we already know. For example, when we see the street of Prague in the movie Rockstar we gain a deeper understanding of how the affective process works in tandem with geospatial information, thus allowing critical geographers to create a space in which the media representations are transformed from conceptual spaces to actual places.

Media changes meaning as the environment changes, so the function of its characteristics in relation to social processes can be the purveyor of a specific relationship to the body. Through these articles we hope that geographers will gain a deeper appreciation of different paths of exploration offered through an engagement of media in a variety of temporal and cultural form.