All communication media assume social situations with the possibility of choice on both sides, in other words, situations of double contingent selectivity. That is precisely what gives these media their function of transmitting selections from alter to ego while preserving their selectivity. To this extent, the initial problem in all symbolically generalized communication media is the same; what applies to love or truth applies to power. In each case the influential communication relates to a partner who is to be directed in the making of their selections.

DEFINE: Explains the foundational condition of symbolically generalized media: both parties choose from possibilities, and media transmit selections while preserving that selectivity.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 592