Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of the Mass Media

In this paper, we critically examine and contextualize Niklas Luhmann’s analysis of the modern mass media. Aside from features of the political economy of the day, the motor that nourishes and sustains the alleged trajectory of modern societies toward ”mass societies“ is, in the eyes of many observers, the growing significance of the media , increasingly accessible and within the reach of virtually all of the public, a view shared by the Frankfurt School and Luhmann’s systems theory.