Page 98 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

7 Media Theory and Sustainability Communication 81

against a background of the old. This process is impressively illustrated by the
concept of the ‘tetrade’ (McLuhan and Powers 1995). Technological innovations
do not imply a break with what is now, but on the contrary show a continuous
development.

Functions and Approaches of Media Theories

Media theories attempt to “reflect and clarify the identity, functions and status etc.
of media in society and for the individual” (Rusch 2002: 252). They describe,
explain, criticise or shape the means of communication and reception while referring
back to the conditions of their use. These include the technological, cognitive, social
and cultural conditions, effects and consequences. Media theories are cited, for
example by Maletzke (1998) as being the most important theories in debates about
cultural and historical theories. Media theories are often concerned with the
fundamental question of what effects media have on social life, of how media
effect our perception of the world. These theories can therefore be an important
factor in communication finding its place in social discourse. There is then not
just one media theory but a number of different theoretical ways of accessing an
understanding of the effectiveness and use of media. With a view to the increasing
networking and concentration of media and media content, to the increasing inter-
mediality, Leschke (2007) sees the necessity to convert media theories into ‘form
theories’. He justifies this paradigm shift with the observation that the orientation
towards a single media is obsolete and instead exchange processes between media,
especially regarding their forms, has become commonplace: “that a medium with
its forms remains essentially isolated is practically unthinkable. On the contrary,
such medial forms as forms of games, narrative forms and the organisational
forms of hypertext and persuasive communication all circulate through the media
system and through the media. At the same time it is largely irrelevant where they
come from and what their ontological quality is. It is these medial forms that cre-
ate the network among the media on the level of their products” (Leschke 2007:
5; also Leschke 2010).

Media in the Paradigm of Systems Theory

Media are “no longer understood as merely techniques of communication, as instru-
ments for the diffusion and storage of information, but more as instances of selec-
tion and interpretation that actively intervene in the social construction of reality”
(Maletzke 1998: 124). Systems are sets of elements in reciprocal relationships.
They are constituted by their boundaries to the environment and their relationships
to this circumscribed environment. System boundaries separating the system and
the environment are constituted through the differences of these relationships.