Strategic moral communication : A metatheoretical and methodological response to the normative perspective on strategic communication

Abstract: Strategic communication has long suffered from a reputation of immorality, often being conflated with derogatory terms such as sophistry and propaganda. Scholars in the social sciences have been trained to accept this moralizing idea of strategic communication as a normative point of departure, through influential theories such as Habermas’ discourse ethics and methodological approaches such as critical discourse analysis. This thesis challenges such assumptions. Shifting from a normative to an empirical stance, new perspectives on strategic dimensions in moral communication are presented. The thesis introduces ‘strategic moral communication’ as a new theory and ‘moral discourse analysis’ as a new methodology to explore such strategic dimensions in moral discourses. This approach is used to shine new light on the present moral zeitgeist, in an analysis of the discourse around fake news which the thesis argues reflect how our time defines moral and immoral public communication. The immorality of strategic communication may appear commonsensical, but this thesis argues that it is only common sense in our contemporary moral context. While many have assumed that strategic communication is immoral, this thesis rather finds that moral communication is strategic.