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“Why Systems?” asked the German sociologist Dirk Baecker in an article about Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems. To answer the question, it is necessary and important to pose the more fundamental question: why could a theory of society be useful in journalism research? Empirical studies typically do not engage a theory of society or use only implicit societal assumptions, although the role of journalism for and within society cannot be analysed without such a theory. Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems has proved controversial in discussions of German journalism research and consequently we believe it is important to introduce this sociologist and his sociological approach.
Görke et al. (Mon,) studied this question.