Critical and Emergent Media Theory

This essay contrasts two different approaches in media theory. One approach is traced back to Immanuel Kant’s understanding of the Enlightenment as progress toward human autonomy. For Kant, the “public use of reason” in the mass media of his time (books and journals) was essential for bringing about enlightened individuals and an enlightened society. In the wake of Kant, “critical media theory” until today often normatively questions in how far the media empower or undermine agency and authenticity. A different theoretical approach, represented by Marshall McLuhan and Niklas Luhmann, conceives of the media as conditioning human experience and emerging in the context of historical and technological evolution rather than viewing them through an Enlightenment lens. A contemporary version of such an “emergent media theory” can describe the media as a virtual second-order observation reality enabling the curation of profiles.