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.

Introduction: Behavior in Its Place


Part I--Media as Change Mechanisms

Media and Behavior: A Missing Link
Media, Situations, and Behavior
Why Roles Change When Media Change

Part II--From Print Situations to Electronic Situations

The Merging of Public Spheres
The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors
The Separation of Social Place from Physical Place

Part III--The New Social Landscape

New Group Identities
New Ways of Becoming
Questioning Authority
Effect Loops

Part IV--Three Dimensions of Social Change

The Merging of Masculinity and Femininity
The Blurring of Childhood and Adulthood
Lowering the Political Hero to Our Level

Part V--Conclusion

Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going?

Appendix: Discussion of Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Index