From GIS to Web Maps - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 22

efficiency of maps. On the contrary, he mainly relied on
previous studies, including those directed by the sociologist
Paul-Henri Chombart de Lauwe 1 . Similarly, the personal
and empirical nature of Bertin's topic is revealed by the
absence of bibliographic references, a surprising fact given
the high number of semiological studies at the time. Finally,
while Robinson laid the groundwork of his theoretical work
in the field of military research, Bertin's source and audience
were primarily academics. In this way, he joined in the
tendency of his time to merge statistics with humanities and
social sciences [PAL 00].
2.1.3. The map communication model
Although Robinson started his work at the beginning of
the 1950s, it is not before the end of the 1960s that a
systematic communication approach to maps was adopted as
part of the MCM. This model explicitly combined Robinson's
ideas of map users and design with Shannon's mathematical
theory of communication [SHA 48]. Following the latter's
work, the MCM aimed to quantify the probability for the
message to be conveyed and to reduce the “noise” disturbing
the process.
Crampton summarizes the four assumptions of the MCM
as follows:
- there is a clear separation between the cartographer
and the map user;
- the map is the intermediary between the two;
- it transfers information from the cartographer to the
map user;
1 In the first part of Chombart de Lauwe's study, Paris et l'agglomération
parisienne (1952), Bertin is nominated as “graphic research” officer as well
as being the author of the chapter with the same name in part 2.