The Reality of the Mass Media

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.