Maps as Media

Name: Maps as Media
Price: 32.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781509550135

Alex Gekker

$32.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Polity Press
07 July 2026

Graphical & digital media applications

Series: Digital Media and Society

Maps have escaped from the confines of road atlases or decorative frames to being ubiquitous on our screens. Using a GPS while driving, looking for a shop on Google Maps, or tracking a food delivery – all involve some form of digital maps. Rather than depicting existing reality, maps are active agents in changing it, all the while making use of personalization algorithms, content curation and other techniques that are pervasive in digital media. In doing so, maps are reorienting our geography and further fracturing shared reality into individual spaces.

Maps as Media investigates digital maps as new media objects. Combining perspectives from media studies, critical cartography, and science and technology studies, the book examines the transformation of mapping from a specialized domain into a commonplace media practice. Alex Gekker argues that maps are reactive and reflective, fuelled by the ability of software to track, adapt and update. This naturalized state of digital maps allows them to become powerful tools for those wishing to exert power on their end-users. As a growing number of digital technologies integrate GPS and other spatial awareness into their core functionality, this book asks what happens when maps become media.

Original and thought-provoking, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Media and Communication Studies, Geography, and Science and Technology Studies.

By: Alex Gekker
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781509550135
ISBN 10: 1509550135
Series: Digital Media and Society
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 07 July 2026
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Alex Gekker is Assistant Professor in Digital Research Methods at the University of Amsterdam.

Reviews for Maps as Media

""Maps as Media invites readers to navigate its many pathways, revealing at every turn Gekker's acute sensitivity to mapping as a living, shifting practice."" Lisa Parks, University of California-Santa Barbara ""Through a thoroughly interdisciplinary analysis, this book provides a compelling rethinking of maps as platformed media. A critical text for understanding media and maps and their interplay in the digital era."" Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University