Requiem for the media

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Requiem for the media is an approach to a media theory that Jean Baudrillard published in 1972 , two years after Enzensberger's media kit . Baudrillard's approach systematically belongs to the generalized media ontologies.

Baudrillard's key messages

  • There is no media theory , as no approach has so far been able to capture the media in their entirety; in particular, Baudrillard negates the emancipatory media-theoretical approaches from Enzensberger's media construction kit as well as McLuhan's examination of the manipulation potential of the media.
  • Mass media are intransitive, prevent the exchange ( anti-mediatory ) and produce non-communication ( non-communication ), since no mutual exchange takes place; there is no important basis for this, the mutual relationship between sender and recipient; Media "forbid" an answer and any " trading process " forever . He hereby again explicitly contradicts Enzensberger, according to which the media only fabricate non-communication , while Baudrillard claims: "The media [are] that [...] which forever fails to answer" . An example of this "speech without answer" is television , which ensures "that people no longer talk to each other, that they are finally isolated in the face of a speech without an answer" .
  • The reproduction of an event by the media falsifies the "rhythm and meaning" of the event; the form of the media inevitably shows solidarity with the power system, "symbolic action" is impossible. Baudrillard describes the street as an example of the alternative and subversive form of the mass medium , as it is not a carrier of messages, but shows things as they are and offers direct interaction and communication with the possibility of answering.
  • The classic communication model of communication theory , consisting of the triad sender - message ( message ) - receiver , is not tenable because it is a pure "simulation model" . According to Baudrillard, the coding prevents an exchange of the message itself: "[..] it is the code that keeps both 'en respect', 'in check'"
  • It is impossible to democratize, infiltrate, or influence the media; the only possible change is to restore the ability to answer in the communication process, which Baudrillard calls a revolution .

reception

The requiem for the media , like many of Baudrillard's texts, is "illegible if you don't persistently think against it" (Josef Rauscher), so many statements sound accordingly contradictory and illogical; since Baudrillard actually negates the possibility of a media theory, the requiem is actually an anti-media theory for the media . Already the recourse to the Requiem - the funeral mass in the Catholic liturgy - indicates Baudrillard's theoretical thrust, since he does not follow the structure of the Requiem in the structure of his media theory, however, the analogies should not be overestimated.

literature

  • Jean Baudrillard : Requiem for the media . In: Jean Baudrillard: Kool Killer or the uprising of characters . Berlin: Merve Verlag, 1978