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Title: Analytic Mapping and Geographic Databases by G . David Garson, Robert S. Biggs ISBN: 0-8039-4752-6 Publisher: Sage Publications Pub. Date: 11 June, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: KISS: Keep it simple, well done
Comment: Garson and Biggs' introduction to GIS is an excellent and simple overview of the program. The program is similar in structure to SPSS in that it is an extension of the database concept, but includes mathematical data analysis. What makes GIS software uniquely suited to certain types of social science research is its potential to display the data in spatial relations visual images on maps and its capacity to analyze the data in terms of its spatial relations. For audiences of any media, being able to examine the participants, viewers and their distribution over a geographic region, GIS can provide very useful information.
In this text, Garson and Biggs explain a variety of different display options available within the software. The "raised pin" map shows the distribution of a given a given object over a spatial plane by raised pins of varying lengths. This visual allows comparison of data in different regions. The program uses tessellation - a mosaic pattern of random grouping into small pixels or squares to make these representations possible where there are not already existing divisions such as political boundaries. There are also fishnet representation options in the program, which creates a kind of mountainous contour map above the real map. The higher peaks represent large quantities of a given variable, and the valleys represent lower quantities of a given variable. Dividing the range on a variable, the researcher can instruct the program to color-code certain pre-existing political, economic or natural divisions according to the percentage or total quantity of a given variable. Similarly, the researcher can create division in a variable and create a map with varying sizes of dots to represent the quantity of a given variable.
In short, this program extends the possible options for analysis using electronic data base applications of social science research. While this is an excellent tool and it seems that it would apply very directly to visually displaying audience demographics or demographics of Internet participants, I feel I need to search for still more computer-aided research tools to make such research possible. The range of knowable data in this field far outreaches the human range for data collection and consumption. Therefore, more computer-assisted programs will be critical to the completion of an effective project.