Riepl's law

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The so-called Riepl's law of the media states that no socially established instrument for the exchange of information and ideas will be completely replaced or superseded by other instruments that appear over time.

In 1913, shortly before the First World War , the German journalist and editor-in-chief of the Nürnberger Zeitung, Wolfgang Riepl, formulated the hypothesis in his dissertation "The ancient news system with special regard to the Romans" :

“In spite of all such changes, however, it can be stated that in addition to the most highly developed means, methods and forms of communication in the civilized states, the simplest archetypes are still in use among various indigenous peoples [...]. On the other hand, a basic law of the development of communications emerges, as it were, that the simplest means, forms and methods, if they have only been found to be naturalized and useful, are never again completely and permanently suppressed and put out of use by the most perfect and highly developed can, but survive alongside these, only that they are compelled to seek out other tasks and areas of exploitation. "

Riepl's statement was reinterpreted by the later media studies to a “law of complementarity of the media” - and as a result it was often criticized and refuted. The media scientist Werner Faulstich wrote in 2002:

“In the 21st century, the messenger has long ceased to be a medium that is established as such and is in some way socially dominant. And what role does the telegraph still play in individual communication today? In a similar way, numerous other earlier human media such as the preacher or the crier, writing media such as the scroll and earlier print media such as the calendar no longer function as a medium today, although they once had a verifiable media character. In other words: The so-called 'law of inalienability' is not a law at all and as a thesis is simply wrong. "

Nevertheless, the term continues to be used in German-speaking social and communication science : Riepl's simple hypothesis in relation to "old" communication rites in antiquity, which were preserved even if there were "newer" ones, was referred to as "law" in the modern media world - with the following basic statement: New, more highly developed media have never replaced the old ones, analogies emerged such as:

  • With the introduction of radio , the daily newspaper did not die out, but instead specialized in more background coverage and local events .
  • With the introduction of television , the formerly generalist medium of radio specialized in particular topicality and function as a side medium and did not die out.
  • With the introduction of television, the formerly generalist medium of cinema specialized in the communal experience and the special power of image and sound and did not die out.

Since the 1990s, “Riepl's Law” has been discussed in connection with the digital revolution and the associated phenomena such as newspaper deaths , free online offers (see free culture ) and blogs .

literature

  • Wolfgang Riepl: Ancient communications with special consideration for the Romans. Teubner, Leipzig 1913 ( digitized version ); Reprint Olms, Hildesheim 1972, ISBN 3-487-04218-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Riepl: The news system of antiquity. Teubner, Leipzig 1913, p. 4 f.
  2. ↑ Werner Faulstich: Introduction to media studies. Problems, Methods, Domains Fink, Munich 2002 (UTB, Vol. 2407), ISBN 3-8252-2407-4 , p. 159.
  3. ↑ History of communication: positions and tools. A discursive handbook and textbook , LIT; 2008; ISBN 978-3825813093 limited preview in Google Book search