The Reality Of The Mass Media

In The Reality of the Mass Media Luhmann extends his theory of social systems applied in his earlier works to the economy the political system artreligion the s... » 

In The Reality of the Mass Media Luhmann extends his theory of social systems applied in his earlier works to the economy the political system artreligion the sciences and law to an examination of the role of mass mediain the construction of social reality.Luhmann argues that the system of mass media is a set of recursive selfreferential programs of communication whose functions are not determined bythe external values of truthfulness objectivity or knowledge nor by specificsocial interests or political directives. Rather he contends that the systemof mass media is regulated by the internal code informationnoninformationwhich enables the system to select its information news from its ownenvironment and to communicate this information in accordance with its ownreflexive criteria.Despite its selfreferential quality Luhmann describes the mass media as oneof the key cognitive systems of modern society by means of which societyconstructs the illusion of its own reality. The reality of mass media heargues allows societies to process information without destabilizing socialroles or overburdening social actors. It forms a broad reservoir memory ofoptions for the future coordination of action and it provides parameters forthe stabilization of political reproduction of society as it produces acontinuous selfdescription of the world around which modern society can orientitself.In his discussion of mass media Luhmann elaborates a theory of communicationin which communication is seen not as the act of a particular consciousnessnor the medium of integrative social norms but merely the technical codesthrough which systemic operationsarrange and perpetuate themselves. «