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 No Sense of Place. Advancing a daring and sophisticated theory, Meyrowitz shows how television and other electronic media create new social situations that are no longer shaped by where we are or who is “with” us. 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.
Customer Reviews
Makes sense of 20th century chaos:
This is a book that will make you say, “That’s why that is,” over and over. It takes many of the rapid changes and social movements of the last half century and shows how they are all in fact related to the development of tv and other media. It reads like a novel, too.
A solid framework in which to negotiate a mediated culture:
Revisiting and moving beyond his predecessors, Meyrowitz’s book provides a wonderful framework that allows the reader of any level to appreciate the role of mediated communication in shaping social spheres and orders…both historically and today.
Written in a style that avoids the high-semantics of academia and avoids the vague poetics of McLuhan, Meyrowitz’s book is perhaps most fascinating because of the fact that it was written fifteen years ago: before the internet boom, before the merger-mania of media conglomeritization, etc. In my opinion, Meyrowitz’s ideas are still very relevant and are a true signifier of the brilliance of this text.
Bloated prose, uninformed opinion:
Does the author really believe that TV offers us an intimate look at the life and soul of the personalities it portrays? Obviously, political figures have devised means to manipulate the media via their own machinations and through their own media consultants. I would argue that so called “parasocial” communication (an example of academic newspeak the author employs) in fact results in a false sense of security regarding our knowledge of politicians. … To say that a glimpse at a politician or other public personality via television offers us an intimate look at his or her behavior is like saying that watching Mel Gibson play Hamlet tells us about Gibson’s personal life. Has this author ever heard of the concept of “acting?” As P. T. Barnum stated, “There’s a sucker born every minute…. Just as Plato warned about art as being an artifice of an artifice (that is the replication of the “real” which is already removed from true essence) this book is a fantasy of a fantasy; unfortunately it doesn’t seem the author can tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
A leisury yet deep analysy of the impact of television:
To understand the impact of media, you have two choiches: you decode McLuhan and DeKerkhove (at least try), or you read this book. Meyrowitz writes from the perspective of a child and of a socioligist of media, describing how television has changed forever the way we relate to space, both public and private. With theatrical recollections of family scenes from the 60’s and cultured references to other studies Meyrowitz manages to make us look at TV and media in general as we never did before.
MUST READ, if interested in the impact of electronic media!:
Joshua Meyrowitz takes the reader through a fantastic and comprehensive perspective on the impact of electronic media. Beyond McLuhan, Meyrowitz challenges the reader to consider the formulative role of media, irrespective of it’s content. Meyrowitz clearly details the impact of electronic media on one’s perception of place, and the unrecognized rearrangement of social forums. This book is a MUST READ for those interested in the impact of television and computer networking technologies on contemporary social life–if understood, it will forever change your perceptions of media
