Symbolically generalized communication media
The theory of symbolically generalized communication media (also known as control or success media ) is a central component of the theory of social systems of the sociologist Niklas Luhmann .
Disambiguation
According to Niklas Luhmann, for example, power , money , love , art and truth appear as communication media. These all have the same properties and structures and are therefore easily comparable with one another within Luhmann's theory.
In The Society of Society , Luhmann presents the best-developed theory of communication media. He differentiates between dissemination media, which increase the range of communication , and successful media . The latter include the symbolically generalized communication media. They represent the solution to a problem that the theory of evolution raises within Luhmann's social theory.
Unlikely communication
In the course of social development, language increases the intelligibility of communication. However, this also reduces the likelihood that communication will be successful. The written form of communication extends the spatial and temporal range of communications because communication partners no longer need to be co-present for their success. However, the likelihood of communication success decreases with it. Symbolically generalized communication media represent the solution to the problem that has arisen in this way: they enormously reduce the improbability in question.
Successful communication means that the selections of one communication are taken over as premises for subsequent communications. Luhmann understands communication as a three-digit selection. An initiator decides on information and communication. This can be followed by an understanding. Success here means that an originally selected piece of information is understood and accepted as the basis for subsequent communication. On the basis of the selection of the first initiator, another three-digit selection is then added.
The symbolically generalized communication media solve the communication problem that has arisen in the course of social development in a specific way. A payment, for example, ensures that someone gives away a coveted good. But how can a payment - today coded in a currency - motivate to do so? Luhmann answers this question with the expectation of follow-up communications. If Ego cannot assume that the payment received from Alter Ego will continue to be redeemable, Ego will not accept the payment. If, on the other hand, the connectivity of communication, in this example payment, is guaranteed, the ego is motivated to accept a payment. Communication media generally link selection and motivation. They transform improbable constellations into probabilities. The improbability of communication is generally based on the fact that a social situation includes two contingent positions (i.e. those of the ego (I) and that of alter (the other), which result from (active) action or through (passive) being affected by action. The symbolically generalized communication media overcome the aforementioned improbability by mediating between the two positions.
Power, money, love, truth, art
According to Luhmann, modern, functionally differentiated society is particularly strongly shaped by the five symbolically generalized communication media of power, money, love, truth and art.
(Political) power enables z. B. that a traffic offender pays a fine or that the state receives it. Money ensures that I get bread from the baker or that the latter gives it to me. Love is the reason that a daughter takes care of her old sick father or that the father receives this care. The claim to (scientific, falsifiable) truth enables one scientist to adopt a scientific statement from another and this other scientist to spread his statement. Art, more precisely: the artistic character claimed by an artifact (read: the claim to arouse interest), moves an aesthetically gifted person to turn to the product of an artist and thus gives the artist an interest in his art.
Web links
The systems theorist Dirk Baecker explains the symbolically generalized communication media video
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jurit Kärtner: On the theory and typology of the successful media . In: Journal of Sociology . tape 48 , no. 2 , May 27, 2019, ISSN 2366-0325 , p. 116–135 , doi : 10.1515 / zfsoz-2019-0009 (doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2019-0009 [accessed June 11, 2019]).