Media codes suppress self-gratification to bind organisms into social communication

Evidence

Since many organic systems become involved in media-guided communication processes, the media-code must see to it that these organisms and their psychic systems do not take on a life of their own and that they operate jointly via the indirect route of socially meaningful communication relationships. This occurs by means of banning self-gratification. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 706

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘banning self-gratification’ mechanism maps onto how Stevens’s deferential role bans his own desire — the emotional suppression Ishiguro dramatizes. — connects to: Objects and media messages interrogate consumers rather than being consumed — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 256