Klaus Merten

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Klaus Merten (born July 31, 1940 in Potsdam ; † February 24, 2020 ) was a German communication scientist .

Life

Merten studied mathematics, journalism and sociology at the universities of Aachen, Münster and Bielefeld. He graduated in 1970 as a sociologist in Münster. Merten was a student of Niklas Luhmann . From 1973 to 1978 Merten worked as a research assistant at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University . In 1976 he was awarded a Dr. rer. soz. PhD. After visiting professorships at the Universities of Mainz, Gießen and Berlin, he accepted a call in 1979 as professor for methods of empirical social research at the University of Gießen , where he also became director of the Institute for Sociology . In 1984 he accepted a professorship for empirical communication research at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster , where he stayed - interrupted by a visiting professorship at the University of Tunis in 1990  - until his retirement. Klaus Merten is the initiator of the one-year distance learning course to become a PR manager and founded com + plus GmbH in 2003, which offers this further education.

Communication and lies

In 1986 Merten published widely acclaimed works on the evolution of communication and public relations. In 2006 Merten formulated an essay Only those who are allowed to lie can communicate (Presses spokesman, 4, Heft 1, 2006: 22-25), in which he consistently derived from a theoretical perspective that communication always requires the possibility of acting without truth. The German Council for Public Relations (DRPR), whose ethics always demand the unconditional truth of PR professionals , turned against it . In an open letter and several studies, Merten then massively reproached the DRPR for understanding too little of communication to be able to credibly represent effective ethics, and recommended the DRPR to dissolve. In 2008 Klaus Merten published his theory of the "five levels of reality".

Communication terms according to Merten

In 1977 Merten examined over 160 definitions of communication and developed its own grid that differentiates between subanimal, animal, human and mass communication as follows:

  • Subanimal communication is communication between individual organisms. Part of subanimal communication are technical as well as scientific phenomena such as the mutual influence of two magnetic substances.
  • Animal communication is the communication between animal beings, whether between animals or between humans and animals.
  • Human communication exclusively describes communication between people. A special feature of this communication is the availability of the linguistic channel above and alongside other - non-verbal - communication channels.
  • Mass communication is a type of human communication that depends on technical aids (i.e. indirect), is usually one-sided and is aimed at a dispersed audience .
  • Computer-mediated (community) communication is a form of communication that emerged from the fusion of telecommunication, computerization and conventional electronic mass media.

Prizes and awards

Fonts (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Dillmann ,: “Communication scientist Klaus Merten died” on pr-journal.de of March 13, 2020, accessed on March 15, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Merten, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communication scientist and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 2020