The Reality of the Mass Media

Abstract

Whilst clearly not readily accessible in the style of a university textbook, this book should be read by any student who is serious about understanding why we have a 'mass media' distinction in our societies. In the sociological analysis of Luhmanns Systems Theory, the mass media is explained as a system (set) of self-referential recursive communication programmes that are regulated by an internal code of information/non-information' - the distinction (in the sphere of economy, the distinction is profitable/unprofitable) that is the basis of peoples decisions.

Niklas Luhmann, The Reality of the Mass Media (Cambridge: Polity Press; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000; ISBN 0 8047 4077 1). Paperback, 154 pages.

In this book Luhmann presents another major building block in his theory of modern society, derived from studying human interactivity and the nature of social systems. The mass media is identified as one of the discrete "function-systems" that direct the self-observation of the social system. The mass media, in Luhmanns terms, is a key cognitive system for constructing society's own reality.

The book is an expansion and development of Luhmann's 1994 Düsseldorf lecture, previously published in 1996, and has been translated from German to English by Kathleen Cross. Luhmann presents us with a sociological analysis that goes beyond communication studies' media research by applying his social system theory in a strictly relational manner at a societal level. Whilst clearly not readily accessible in the style of a university textbook, this book should be read by any student who is serious about understanding why we have a 'mass media' distinction in our societies.

Luhmann asks, and offers an entertaining and insightful answer to, the question: how can we describe the reality of the mass media's construction of reality? For this, he applies his notion of "operational constructivism" to investigate the role of the mass media in the constitution of social reality. He finds that the mass media are observing systems - of news reporting, entertainment, and advertising - which have a crucial function in the general self-reproduction of society. The mass media don't merely disseminate information, they construct a reality.

Far from seeing a homogenous 'mass', Luhmann is struck by the diversity of the news (in the sphere of politics), advertising (in the sphere of economy), and enrertainment (part of the arts). All converge in crearing rhe conditions for further communication. Indeed, Luhmann is helpful here in emphasising that "communication only comes about when someone watches, listens, reads ... and understands to the extent that further communication could follow on. The mere act of uttering does not... constitute communication" (p. 4). Communication does not involve a'transfer' of information. This rather undermines the all too common, simplistic idea that the mass media tell people (about) things by transporting information in utterances that are some kind of symbols or physical tokens of meaning in their mind.

The mass media use copying technologies to generate large quantities of media products as the bearer of communication. They are operated as dissemination media. Interaction between sender and receiver of symbolic communication artefacts is ruled out by the interposition of technology. There is interruption of contact whenever any so-called information or communication technology comes between people. Technologies that connect people can be either supportive of informing, or supportive of communicating, but these are separate and distinct actions. People feel that there is a social dimension to their life experience when they are in close contact with other people, but hardly otherwise.

In the sociological analysis of Luhmanns Systems Theory, the mass media is explained as a system (set) of self-referential recursive communication programmes that are regulated by an internal code of information/non-information' - the distinction (in the sphere of economy, the distinction is profitable/unprofitable) that is the basis of peoples decisions. These functions are not determined by external values (such as truthfulness, objectivity, and knowledge), nor by specific social interests or political directives. Communication is, then, not the act of a particular consciousness, but the technical code through which systemic operations arrange and perpetuate themselves. We don't have the mass media in society because we want to communicate (usually meaning disseminate information). E conversa, communicate, and a system arises and is constituted. Communicating, then, is not a means, but a mode, of interaction and organisation.

Luhmann goes much further. In following the implicit code of the mass media, he holds, we create a false consciousness for public consumers and for the producers. Those operating 'in' the media pretend to reflect reality. Those 'in' the public pretend to believe it. This has serious consequences. We are all dependent on the mass media to provide us with the information on which we build a "reality". The very basis of the mass media is to feed information to our knowledge gaps and to the glitches in our worldviews. Much of what we know about our lives in the world comes through the mass media. Here Luhmanns operational constructivism kicks in: all attempts to escape the social construction of reality are naive and futile. Cognitive systems cannot distinguish fully between conditions of their own knowledge and conditions of the existence of real objects, because they have access to such real objects only through their knowledge. This is hard to take for the many who believe in objectivity in a society which believes that scientific descriptions are authentic knowledge of a reality.

Luhmann's investigation shows how the system (of the mass media) comes to differ from its environment - that social differentiation is inherent in the system formation. Communication acts and events are the operations of the social system. In Luhmann's terms, society is an autopoietic system consisting only of communication. Communication, an elementary constituent of the social system, is the only jointly social operation. It nd cannot be reduced to the activity of a single person, or to mere aggregate of the activities of several persons. The environment is only a stimulus, not a source of communication. We should not seek causal chains of events to explain organisation and collective action, but instead recognise a multitude of autonomous interfering fields of communicative action. A social system, then, is not an existent entity to find through observation, but an emergent order in people interacting.

Luhmann's work has been much criticised, especially for not being empirically based and for being very abstracted from specific situations and practical questions. Yet, because he has been one of the most influential of the recent sociologists, his work should be carefully considered. This readable translation is a further opportunity to enter the rich world of Luhmann's explanatory social systems theory of society. It forces readers to reassess what we think we know about society, communication and our mediated reality, and to re-view the illusion of reality that society constructs.

Richard Varey