GIS

GIS is the short for Geographic Information System, a broad class of technology concerning the creation, manipulation, and sharing of geographic data. GIS serves as an accumulative function with powerful tools for making maps, constructing information, and integrating location-based data with other platforms. 
Common scientific applications of GIS include- hydrological modeling, urban area planning, forest and vegetation based modelling, cartographic modeling, geo-statistics etc. GIS can also be web-based. Such as- QGIS. At the user end of GIS, there is Web-mapping (including platforms like Google Earth, ArcGIS Earth). 
Popular software include OpenStreetMap, GRASS GIS, SketchUp (with Google Earth), and ArcGIS. ArcGIS has become a de-facto industry standard in manipulating geographic data.
== Relation to Media ==
GIS as Media, by Matthew Wilson and Monica Stephens, is a survey to the compositional possibilities of GIS.   The citations leave a lot of background in the dark, necessitating the exploration of these other papers in order to truly grasp every detail, but the main points get across.  It teaches readers about GIS's history as somewhat scientifically rigorous in approach, shying away humanities academics, and how that is changing as we are learning to combine GIS and other mediums to convey much more than objectivity and sociological facts in maps.
The paper points out that GIS has evolved to understanding human interaction as much as it charts physical features, “The emergence of ‘volunteered geographic information’ therefore marks an emergent area of inquiry within the GISciences, responding to less academic developments within a field of hobbyists and entrepreneurs called ‘neogeography’ (Wilson and Graham 2013). VGI describes an area of GISc that recognizes the opportunities of social and spatial media in producing massive amounts of information that can and should be leveraged to understand human as well as physical geographies”
The main argument centers around the idea that GIS is becoming media itself, combining knowledge of relationships hitherto thought of as separate, the social and the spatial. Increased network interconnectedness and Big Data are pushing GIS into more diverse realms. Whether or not these claims are universal is still being worked out as the digital landscape continues to evolve.
Of equal significance in understanding mapping as media is Katherine Harmon's The Map as Art. She discusses how maps, previously the domain of collective and objective knowledge, has learned to incorporate the experience and thoughts of people while preserving a sense of place. This has manifested in rather abstract art that "maps" out ideas surrounding specific individuals or groups of individuals, creating identify and reflection.
Current examples of multi-modal composition in GIS: 
In SketchUp, users are allowed to overlay their own architectural imaginings over existing landscapes that are imaged in Google Earth. In ArcGIS, designers often tell stories and history by dynamically engaging a map with text, video, and motion.Category:Media