n The Reality of the Mass Media, Luhmann extends his theory of social systems -- applied in his earlier works to the economy, the political system, art, religion, the sciences, and law -- to an examination of the role of mass media in the construction of social reality.

Luhmann argues that the system of mass media is a set of recursive, self-referential programs of communication, whose functions are not determined by the external values of truthfulness, objectivity, or knowledge, nor by specific social interests or political directives. Rather, he contends that the system of mass media is regulated by the internal code information/noninformation, which enables the system to select its information (news) from its own environment and to communicate this information in accordance with its own reflexive criteria.

Despite its self-referential quality, Luhmann describes the mass media as one of the key cognitive systems of modern society, by means of which society constructs the illusion of its own reality. The reality of mass media, he argues, allows societies to process information without destabilizing social roles or overburdening social actors. It forms a broad reservoir (memory) of options for the future coordination of action, and it provides parameters for the stabilization of political reproduction of society, as it produces a continuous self-description of the world around which modern society can orient itself.

In his discussion of mass media, Luhmann elaborates a theory of communication in which communication is seen not as the act of a particular consciousness, nor the medium of integrative social norms, but merely the technical codes through which systemic operationsarrange and perpetuate themselves.

魯曼（Niklas Luhmann, 1927-1998），德國知名的社會學家。1927年生於下薩克森邦的呂內堡。15歲時受到徵召，在二次大戰期間服役於德國空軍，擔任地勤助手，之後曾受被盟軍所俘住過戰俘營至1945年9月。1946年在佛萊堡大學就讀法律系，畢業後通過兩次國家考試後服務於行政機關。1961年申請行政人員進修組織課程的獎學金，至美國哈佛大學跟隨派深思（T. Parsons，美國社會學結構功能論大師）做客座研究一年。返德後任教於德國斯拜爾行政高等學校，1967年於明斯特大學先後提出博士論文與教授資格論文。

1968年起任教於新成立的畢勒菲德新制大學社會系，1993年退休。1998年11月6日逝世。著作繁多，至少有59本專著以及兩百多篇文章。他擅用抽象度極高的概念與文字，而營造出複雜又辯證的理論體系，在1969年著手建立研究計畫時，就定下了30年的期限，並將理論分成三大部份：一是系統理論的「導論」，即1984年出版的《社會系統》一書；二是社會諸不同系統的「各論」，如《社會中的藝術》、《社會中的政治》、《社會中的法律》、《社會中的科學》、《社會中的經濟》等；三是對現代社會之重要功能的整體性分析，即《社會中的社會》一書。