>
> "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.
>
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>
> 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_UYJvechttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E5yG9J...
