On Aug 30, 7:54 pm, turtoni fastmail.net> wrote:

"When distinct social situations are combined, once appropriate
behavior may become inappropriate. When a particular private situation
becomes more public by being merged into other situations, behavior
style must adapt and change. A combination of situations changes the
patterns of role behavior and alters the texture of social reality..."
an example of media distortion and behavior in context

"...many private forums - especially television - have led to the
overlapping of many social spheres that were once distinct..."

"electronic media go one step further: They lead to a nearly total
dissociation of physical place and social "place". Communication and
travel were once synonymous. Our country's communication channels were
once roads, waterways and railroads."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Placelessness and the media. According to Joshua Meyrowitz's No Sense
of Place, another kind of Space Age placelessness has likewise
resulted from the impact of electronic media on social behavior.
Radio, television, telephone, and computer are in the process of
destroying traditional and unique environments, Meyrowitz's impressive
study shows, radically altering the tacit "situational geography" (6)
that has long governed normal behavior. (As an epigraph to his book,
Meyrowitz quotes, appropriately, Marshall McLuhan's observation that
"nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than 'a
place for everything and everything in its place.'")

"It is extremely rare," Meyrowitz writes, "for there to be a sudden
widespread change in walls, doors, the layout of a city, or in other
architectural and geographical structures. But the change in
situations and behaviors that occurs when doors are opened or closed
and when walls are constructed or removed is paralleled in our time by
the flick of a microphone switch, the turning on of a television set,
or the answering of a telephone" (39-40). (Nieuwenhuis' New Bablyon,
Meyrowitz's analysis would suggest, is already being forged not with
bricks and mortar but via new channels of communication.)

Once how we behaved depended largely on where we were and who we were
with. Public and private places, men and women, superiors and
inferiors, children and adults--all required us to behave in
particular ways. But now these distinctions are becoming blurred. Now
"Many Americans may no longer seem to 'know their place' because the
traditionally interlocking components of 'place' have been split apart
by electronic media. Wherever one is now--at home, at work, or in a
car--one may be in touch and tuned-in" (308).

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This article will apply a framework of analysis developed by Joshua
Meyrowitz (1985) to explain how media coverage may have affected the
constitution-making process. In No Sense of Place, Meyrowitz argues
that the real power of television comes from its capacity to reach
into and expose behaviour that was once relegated to ``back regions.''
Television creates a
``shared arena'' by allowing viewers access to political and social
settings that were once shielded from public view. Where political
leaders were once distant figures, the mysteries of their power
enhanced by their remoteness, today's politicians are followed by TV
cameras and a media entourage which relentlessly captures and records
their controlled messages as well as their unintended gaffes, their
brave words as well as the fear in their eyes. Moreover television
transports viewers to other places. The poor can see how the wealthy
live, Jews and Moslems can watch how Christmas is celebrated, and
Iraqi Generals can watch the U.S. Congress vote on whether or not to
go to war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K492_UYJvec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E5yG9JM4HU