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, art, religion, the sciences and law - to an
examination of the role of mass media in the constitution of social
reality.

Luhmann argues that the system of mass media is a set of
recursive, self-referential programmes of communication, whose
functions are not determined by the external values of
truthfulness, objectivity, or knowledge, nor by specific social
interests or political directives. Rather, he contends that the
system of mass media is regulated by the internal code information
/ non-information, which enables the system to select its
information (news) from its own environment and to communicate this
information in accordance with its own reflexive criteria.

Despite its self-referential quality, however, Luhmann describes
the mass media as one of the key cognitive systems of modern
society, by means of which society constructs the illusion of its
own reality. The reality of mass media, he argues, allows societies
to process information without destabilizing social roles or
overburdening social actors. It forms a broad reservoir (memory) of
options for the future co-ordination of action, and it provides
parameters for the stabilization of political expectations. In
these respects, it has a crucial function in the general
self-reproduction of society, as it produces a continuous
self-description of the world around which modern society can
orientate itself. In his discussion of mass media, Luhmann
elaborates a theory of communication in which communication is seen
not as the act of a particular consciousness, nor the medium of
integrative social norms, but merely the technical codes through
which systemic operations arrange and perpetuate themselves.

This book will be of great interest to third year students,
graduate students and scholars in sociology, politics, social and
political theory, media and cultural studies and communication
studies.