Ethics and theories of communication: power, interactions, and participative culture

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make an epistemological approach of the ethical conceptions presented in the main Communication Theories, identifying in some of its epistemological proposals elements of an ethos. It is highlighted how these theories approach communicative mediated processes and at the same time propose procedures and practical actions. We develop our argument in a historical-critical perspective, mapping how notions of power, communicative capacities and constitution of the political citizen, among others are interlaced to the theoretical articulations of the research field. The analysis is developed around three perspectives: (a) antisymmetrical, evincing the way power is placed side by side with media; (b) symmetrical, making equivalent, in different spaces, media producers and receivers; (c) paritarian, with intersections between these two types of agents in a participative culture. The text analyzes these three perspectives focusing the ruptures and continuities between ethics and epistemology.