The Just Use of Propaganda (?): Ethical Criteria for Counter-Hegemonic Communication Strategies.

Arthos, John

In the face of an entrenched corporate ideological apparatus that has captured our state institutions, mainstream media, and the governing classes, this article identifies an ethical problem for critical rhetoric. To what extent are democratic communities justified in utilizing the ‘master's tools’ of strategic communication to fight the vast political machinery of the corporate state? The debate in rhetoric studies on the ethics of persuasion and the debate in communication theory launched by Lippmann's critique of mass communication serve to open up areas of concern for considering the just use of propaganda. An ethical criteriology based on Michel de Certeau's concept of “making do” is developed to guide thinking about appropriate responses to the stranglehold of postmodern hegemony over the political economy. The Wisconsin Scott Walker repeal campaign of 2011 is used as an extended example to test this criteriology.

PROPAGANDA; RHETORIC; IDEOLOGY; STRATEGIC communication; ECONOMICS; HEGEMONY

Western Journal of Communication, 2013, Vol 77, Issue 5, p582

1057-0314

Academic Journal

10.1080/10570314.2013.785014