In this lab, I learned to create maps using four different classification methods to visualize the housing cost throughout the Greater Vancouver area. The four methods are Manual Breaks, Natural Breaks, Standard Deviation, and Equal Intervals. Also, I came to recognize how different interpretation methods influence readers’ judgement.
Question 6 in this lab asked the following:
“Since you are a journalist, putting together maps of housing cost in Vancouver, which classification method would you choose for your audience and why? What if you are a real estate agent preparing a presentation for prospective home buyers near UBC? Are there ethical implications for your choice of classification method?”
Answer: If I am a journalist, I would choose manual breaks classification method because it visualizes which areas are most expensive and least expensive in the simplest and most user-friendly way. So that when a reader/audience looks at it, he/she gets the exact information he/she wants right away;
If I am a real estate agent preparing a presentation for potential buyers, I would choose equal interval method which provides higher level of specificity. It gives reader a sense of getting a good deal, because UBC neighbourhood has a very good reputation for its location and surrounding environment, and when using this method, the housing cost seems evenly distributed across Vancouver, except for a few darker(most expensive) areas. Therefore, the UBC area coloration seems uniform;
The ethical implication is that any individual who can manipulate particular classification methods would be able to persuade their audience/reader what the person want them to see or think, which implies obvious but unavoidable bias.
To be noticed, there much more audiences in different fields that can be targeted with GIS. Therefore, adaptations have to be made in order to reach this broader set of people in a way that anyone can understand a map, and more importantly, to reduce potential biases that hinder people’s accurate understanding of information that the maps convey.