The vicarious self: Media and individual experience in the context of societal complexity reduction

Abstract

Purpose

To provide a theoretical context for the application of F. Geyer's work on alienation in highly complex societal environments to the study of the social and cultural impact of the mass media and cultural industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A macro‐sociological approach provides the ground for the insertion of Geyer's concepts of alienation and vicarious experience into Luhmann's theory of the mass media. The second‐order cybernetics conception of endogenous information is here taken as a systemic insight to the idea of experience in cultural studies and social psychology.

Findings

Provides a theoretical basis for the use of experience as an observational concept in the study of the social and cultural impact of media dynamics, posing interesting links with relevant current research issues in mass media, such as globalization and uncertainty management.

Research limitations/implications

This is a theoretical work that demands future applications and research field in order to test coherence and potential.

Practical implications

This paper underlines the relevance of F. Geyer's work on alienation from the viewpoint of systems perspective to the current study of the mass media as a macro‐sociological reference phenomenon in social and cultural trends. It poses vicarious experience as an observational concept, thus providing a conceptual bridge between systemics and current cultural studies.

Originality/value

This paper poses a wide and original conceptual net that involves Geyer's work together with macro‐sociological current contributions (Giddens, Luhmann, Beck, etc.) in the context of media studies.

Citation

Miguel Aguado, J. (2006), "The vicarious self: Media and individual experience in the context of societal complexity reduction", Kybernetes, Vol. 35 No. 3/4, pp. 567-582. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920610653818