No Sense of Place: The Electronic Media on Social Behavior (Revised)

How has television affected our everyday experience? This question has generated endless arguments and speculations, but no thinker has addressed the issue with such force and originality as Joshua Meyrowitz in ^INo Sense of Place.^R Advancing a daring and sophisticated theory, Meyrowitz shows how television and other electronic media create new social situations that are no longer shaped by ^I where^R we are or who is "with" us.^L While other media experts have limited the debate to program content, Meyrowitz focuses on the ways in which television has rearranged "who knows what about whom," making it impossible for us to behave with each other in traditional ways. He shows how television has lifted many of the veils of secrecy between children and adults, men and women, and politicians and average citizens. The result is a series of revolutionary changes, including the blurring of age, gender, and authority distinctions.