Familiar With the Term Global Village, First

¶ … familiar with the term global village, first coined by the popular media theorist, Marshall McLuhan and repeatedly used and expanded upon by other media and technology experts. The same view is endorsed and extended in Joshua Meyrowitz's book 'No Sense of Place' first published in 1985. The author argues that because of television and in fact all forms of media, our sense of geographical place has vanished or at least diminished to certain extent and overtaken by what is call the sense of 'the "situational geography" of social life'. (p. 6)

Meyrowitz's theory of 'situations as information-systems' (Meyrowitz, 1985: 35-8) is grounded in the realization that with media come has not only come closer to others but in the process has also lost his sense of spatial reality. In short the author asserts that in our electronic society, we have no real sense of place in geographical terms. Mey's work is based on Goffman's sociological ideas and McLuhan's work on the role of media in our lives. Using these works as foundation for his theory, Mey maintains that man can no longer identify a clear link between physical place and situations. The growing influence of media is suppressing 'the traditional relationship between physical setting and social situation'. (p. 7)

Mey believes that information flow now control our sense of place and situations both. In other words, how information flows is directly connected with man's sense of geographical space. For example when viewers watch something happening in Siberia on television, they are instantly transported to a land far and away and thus loses his sense of place. Let us explain this with the help of an example that Mey uses in his book to illustrate his theory. He observes the communication people have over telephones and notes during such conversations, 'the situation they are "in" is only marginally related to their respective physical locations', and adds that 'the telephone tends to bring two people closer ... In some respects, than they are to other people in their physical environments' and this closeness to the person on the phone extends to such as extent that people in the same room might feel left out and inquire: '"Who is it?" "What's she saying?" "What's so funny?") (Meyrowitz, 1985: 117).

Telephone then becomes our source of electronic connection, which helps in developing a sense of place and situation far removed from actual geographical location and real situation. The physical setting factor goes into the background as two people share closeness through electronic communication and an electronically generated encounter thus proving that, 'Electronic messages seep through walls and leap across great distances' (Meyrowitz, 1985: 117). In this moment of electronic encounter, space and geography are no longer important as they cease to occupy any real significance: 'The walls of the family home ... no longer wholly isolate the home from the outside ... Children may still be sheltered at home, but television now takes them across the globe before parents give them permission to cross the street' (Meyrowitz, 1994: 67)

Mey's theory seems to have an impact on other traditional definitions of space as well. For example when prisoners were originally kept behind bars, the real idea was to isolate them from the world outside. But with access to television and telephone for example, prisoners are no longer separated from the outside world since they too can transcend geographical reality in their moments of electronic encounters. Mey thus argues that 'meaning of a "prison" ... has been changed as a result of electronic media of communication', as 'those prisoners with access to electronic media are no longer completely segregated from society'.

The author explains that the word 'place' in the title is implied as a 'serious pun' that signifies 'both social position and physical location' (Meyrowitz, 1985: 308). Extending this theory of space and geography in the electronic world a little further, Mey states that, 'A telephone or computer in a ghetto tenement or in a suburban teenager's bedroom is potentially as effective as a telephone or computer in a corporate suite' (Meyrowitz, 1985: 169-70).

What I really liked about the book was its effective use of Goffman's work and McLuhan's theory. The author has incorporated the two to develop a new, not necessarily better, theory of spatial reality. Mey's use of examples in the book is another feature you admire about his research because it helps in more thorough and clearer illustration of his theoretical ideas. His criticism of Goffman's spatial restriction is also a main highlight of this book. The author argues that while Goffman's theory of role-playing is invaluable, his use of physical settings no longer applies to the modern technologically advanced world.