Symbolically generalized media are specialized →structures that secure the probability of success of communication. They create expectations of acceptance when rejection is probable, although they cannot safeguard expectations from disappointment. Their function concerns the distinction between acceptance and rejection, which becomes evident after communication has been understood [→Language]. Such communication media are power (or power/law), scientific truth, money (or property/money), love, art and values. All these media are connected to the rise of the functionally differentiated society [→Differentiation of Society].
Language makes understanding probable. Thus, it makes also possible to reject a communication. Rejection of communication is probable when participants do not know each other (why should one accept proposals from an unknown person?), information is not immediately plausible (why should one accept knowledge that is not based on personal experience?), and attribution of selections is problematic (what is the reason for paying taxes?). In general terms, the success of communication is improbable because ego can reject the selection suggested by alter (a request, a proposal, an order) as premises of ego’s own selectivity.
Symbolically generalized media deal with the improbability of ego’s motivation to accept the selection suggested by alter. They can condition ego’s motivation through alter’s selection. The criteria for the coupling of selections function to motivate ego to accept alter’s selection. Thus, symbolically generalized media combine selection and motivation, and thereby make it probable that alter’s selection is accepted as the basis of ego’s further selections. The concepts of “acceptance” and “motivation” do not refer to ego’s psychic system. Acceptance and motivation are not observed as mental states, because the psychic conditions of acceptance and motivation are unknown. Rather, one can observe that a symbolically generalized medium enables the strict coupling of ego’s and alter’s selections through the specific form of the medium [→Medium/Form]. Both ego and alter know and accept that their selections are conditioned by the symbolically generalized medium. For instance, ego accepts alter’s command to pay a fine because alter exercises power; ego accepts alter’s claims that the earth orbits the sun because it concerns scientific truth; ego accepts alter’s suggestion to spend the evening together because she loves alter.
Symbolically generalized media fulfill their function when the acceptance of the selection does not depend on the concrete situation: it is not the effect of the individual selection that counts, but rather the existence of generalized conditions of coordination of selections. Generalization means treating a plurality of references as a unity: the →meaning of a specific communication is not exhausted in the communication itself, but rather condenses into a unitary form that participants can refer to in other situations, at other points in time and with other communication partners. The generalization of the medium occurs through symbols that allow the formation of its unity from a plurality of references. Thanks to this symbolic generalization, the form of the medium can become universally applicable (love is love regardless of the identity of the partners, the circumstances of meeting, the history of the relationship) and regulate every specific situation, but without determining it (one can love differently, depending on the partner, circumstances or relationship history). The participants’ selections are stably coupled, while the coupling is specified case by case.
The differentiation of symbolically generalized media is based on the differentiation of a reference problem, that is a particular problem of combination between selection and motivation. Not all communications need a symbolically generalized medium. In segmentary societies, in which all communication is oral, the possibility that a communication is accepted or rejected is settled on the basis of: a shared and unquestionable world experience; a shared memory; the pressure applied by those present to conform; a direct reference to those concerned. The differentiation of symbolically generalized media has developed during the evolution of society with the increase in the improbability of acceptance of communication, in the context of the diffusion of long-distance communication [→Dissemination Media]. Long-distance communication is addressed to those absent and is linked to unknown future developments. In these conditions, the combination between selection on the one hand, and motivation to accept the selection on the other, cannot be taken for granted.
The symbolically generalized media developed fully with the transition to the functionally differentiated society. In this transition, the symbolically generalized media worked as catalysts in the formation of some functional systems (the political system, the economic system, the scientific system, the system of families, the art system), in which the success of communication depended on the distinction between acceptance and rejection. The symbolically generalized media ensure operational closure and unity of these functional systems. They are absent in functional systems specialized in the communicative treatment of the environment (psychic systems, body, horizons of transcendental meaning), because these systems do not refer to the primary problem of improbable success of communication. In these conditions, either a code referring directly to the function [→Religious System] develops, or the interaction system plays an important function in ensuring the probability of acceptance [→Education System].
Starting from particular problems of combination between selection and motivation, the differentiation of the symbolically generalized media corresponds to the differentiation of ways of attributing coupled selections [→Attribution]. Selections can be attributed as actions (utterances) or as experiences (information): symbolically generalized media are differentiated according to whether ego and alter are observed in regard to their actions or experiences. The differentiation of symbolically generalized media is based on the coupling of alter’s selections and ego’s selections, which are attributed as action or experience. These forms of attribution allow the asymmetrization of →double contingency and the enhancement of communication, which can flow from alter to ego. They direct the conditioning of selection: when a selection is clearly attributed to the system (alter’s action) or its environment (alter’s experience), ego can be motivated to base her own action or experience on this selection.
Four constellations of attribution are possible, each of which correlates with particular symbolically generalized media:
(1) ego’s action refers to the conditions set by alter’s action. The corresponding medium is power (or **power**/law, because power must be legally regulated).
(2) ego’s experience refers to the conditions set by alter’s action. The corresponding media are **money** (or property/money, because money regulates the acquisition of property) and **art**.
(3) ego’s action refers to the conditions set by alter’s experience. The corresponding medium is **love**.
(4) ego’s experience refers to the conditions set by alter’s experience. The corresponding media are scientific **truth** and **values**.
Luhmann provides the schema below (see table 1) as a summary.
Table 1 […] p. 232