In No Sense of Place, which won the 1986 "Best Book on Electronic Media" Award of the National Association of Broadcasters and the Broadcast Education Association,[1] Meyrowitz uses the example of the television to describe how communication 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 argues that television is a "secret exposing" machine that allows individuals to watch others in an unprecedented fashion.
[2] The book is based on his doctoral dissertation also entitled No Sense of Place, which was completed in 1978 in the Media Ecology doctoral program at New York University; Christine Nystrom was Meyrowitz's thesis adviser, and the other members of his dissertation committee were Henry Perkinson and Neil Postman.
In 1982, Postman published The Disappearance of Childhood, which discussed themes similar to one of the case studies in Meyrowitz's dissertation.
[3] Meyrowitz posits his initial theory, that modern electronic media (in this case, primarily in the form of television) have broken barriers that established concepts of place (i.e., cultural understanding of roles, locations, hierarchies, and more).
He presents this view throughout the book, examining how it relates to different aspects of social and cultural construction (including the public versus private spheres of life, group identity, authority and hierarchy, etiquette, gender identity and gender roles, and childhood and adulthood).
Likewise, Meyrowitz observes that televisions shows (e.g., The West Wing), through storytelling, can reveal secrets about authority figures and institutions.
These newer electronic media promote the establishment of group identity by "undermining the relationship between the physical location and information access.
", 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.
Children become exposed to a variety of images and information, which "dilutes the innocence of childhood and the authority of the adults".
[citation needed] 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.
[8] Meyrowitz states that prior to the saturation of television in society, our political leaders had been treated as a "mystified presence", at a status above the common citizen, as it was easier to control the flow of information that represented who they were and what they did.
[8] Although television is a useful tool for our politicians in trying to create this status, it "tends to mute differences between levels of social class".
Meyrowitz terms this "a double-edge sword", as over-exposure of a political leader diminishes their power, with their continuous presence making them seem more ordinary and less mystified.
Because of the immediacy of information to the common citizen about all issues of society, they are now able to closely inspect the image of our leaders, creating a demystification of their presence.
Photography production variables include framing, depth of field, lens type, exposure, film vs. digital, contrast, post-production effects, and more.
He then acknowledges that television and film will use many of those production variables found in print and photography, but then add their own.
He argues that media grammar does not receive much attention, in part, because most people are unaware of the wide range of production variables used.
Meyrowitz writes that this type of literacy is most often associated with Marshall McLuhan's work, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.
Meyrowitz offers dating as an example situation, specifically examining why someone might choose to begin a dating relationship in person (e.g., increased medium richness) vs. why one might choose to end the relationship over the phone (i.e., lower medium richness, no need to be present and deal with possible reaction).