All communication media presuppose double contingent selectivity between partners

Evidence

The first and most important assumption is that media-guided communication processes bind partners who both complete their own selections and know about this from each other. Let us use the terms ‘alter’ and ‘ego’. All communication media assume social situations with the possibility of choice on both sides, in other words, situations of double contingent selectivity. That is precisely what gives these media their function of transmitting selections from alter to ego while preserving their selectivity. To this extent, the initial problem in all symbolically generalized communication media is the same; what applies to love or truth applies to power. In each case the influential communication relates to a partner who is to be directed in the making of their selections. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 592

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘double contingent selectivity’ and the alter/ego framework — foundational to how power reduces complexity for the other party, the crux of the reader’s thesis about Stevens’s deference.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 592
• XREF: connects to: Communication media form only where selection has become contingent and improbable — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 605; Power relations that pre-select compliant partners reduce information-processing demands; Every communication form carries a spatial or temporal bias — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 651 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Communication media form only where selection has become contingent and improbable #corroborates (0.85) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 605
• Trust and power are generalized media converting improbable contingencies into stable meaning systems #expands (0.75)
• Every communication form carries a spatial or temporal bias #expands (0.60) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 651
• Power relations that pre-select compliant partners reduce information-processing demands #exemplifies (0.55)