Joshua Meyrowitz

Joshua Meyrowitz is a professor of communications at the department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. He has published works regarding the effects of mass media, including "No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour" an analysis of the effects various media technologies have caused, particularly television.

"No Sense of Place"

In "No Sense of Place", which won the the 1986 "Best Book on Electronic Media" Award of the National Association of Broadcasters and the Broadcast Education Association, Meyrowitz uses the example of the television to describe how technologies have shaped and influenced the social relations we encounter on a daily basis, proposing that television has been responsible for a significant cultural shift towards new and egalitarian social interactions. He demonstrates how television is a "secret exposing" machine which allows individuals to watch others in an unpreceded fashion. According to Meyrowitz, it is this characteristic that is responsible for television breaking down the barriers between children and adults, men and women and even humanising and demystifying the powerful. [cite book
last = Meyrowitz
first = Joshua
authorlink =
title = No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour
publisher = Oxford University Press
date = 1985
isbn = 978-0-19-504231-3
url = http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Communication/FilmTelevisionStudies/?view=usa&ci=9780195042313]

"Mediating Communication: What Happens?"

In "Mediating Communication: What Happens?", Meyrowitz explores television as providing a new form of human experience, one which distorts traditional social distinctions by discussing ideas of changed childhood, blended genders, and demystified leaders. [cite book
last = Meyrowitz
first = Joshua
editor = Jon Downing, Ali Mohammadi and Annabelle Sreberney-Mohammadi
others =
title = Questioning the Media
origdate =
origyear =
origmonth =
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=WlWxs0ZYFKcC
format =
accessdate =
accessyear =
accessmonth =
edition =
series =
date =
year = 1995
month =
publisher = Sage
location = Thousand Oaks
language =
isbn = 0803971974
pages = pp. 39-53
chapter = Mediating Communication: What Happens?
chapterurl =
quote =
ref = ]

Changed childhood

According to Meyrowitz, television lets children in on the "biggest secret of all, 'the secret of secrecy'". Children become exposed to a variety of images and information, which "dilutes the innocence of childhood and the authority of the adults".

Blended genders

Meyrowitz postulates that television has broken down distinctions between the sexes, enabling women to become aware of public realms of sport, war, politics and medicine and conversely for men to become in touch with their emotional, private side. He claims this has led "toward more career-orientated women and more family-orientated men, toward more work-orientated homes and more family-orientated workplaces", in essence a blending of the genders.

Demystified leaders

Meyrowitz states that our leaders have been treated as a “mystified presence”, at a status above the common citizen, as prior to the saturation of television in society it was easier to control the flow of information that represented who they were and what they did. Although television is a useful tool for our leaders trying to create this status, Meyrowitz terms this "a double-edge sword". Because of the immediacy of information to the common citizen about all issues of society, they are able to closely inspect the image of our leaders, creating a demystification of their presence.

ee also

*Broadcasting
*Medium Theory
*Erving Goffman
*Dramaturgical perspective

References