In the book “The reality of the mass media”, Niklas Luhmann develops a system theoretical framework of mass media. Luhmann conceives of mass media as a societal functional system and, in contrast to other functional systems such as politics, economics, science and law, primarily focuses on a technical distribution medium. He identifies the function of mass media in directing the self-observation of society. He locates three program areas in the mass media: In addition to news and reports – essentially journalism – these are advertising and entertainment. While news and reports are assumed to be true, advertising is assumed to be insincere. Entertainment is ultimately about reducing self-generated uncertainty. As the book title “The reality of the mass media” already clarifies, Luhmann is primarily interested in the question of what characterizes the reality or actuality of mass media. From his system theoretical perspective he does not assume a distortion or manipulation of reality but focuses on the specific selections of the program areas of mass media. “The reality of the mass media” has been widely received by German-speaking communication science, but has often faced very fundamental criticism.