Dialogue, non–dialogue and dissemination—Ancient questions, contemporary perspectives.
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Authors
Mersham, G. M.
Keywords
Communication
Dialogue
Dialogue
Description of form
Publisher
Rights
Rights holder
Issue Date
2014
Peer-reviewed status
Type
Article
Abstract
With the advent of the Internet, the promise of
dialogue has become the holy grail of
communication. The idea of communication
without dialogue is not a popular one.
Decades of critique of the unidirectional
messages of the mass media, controlled by
powerful institutional agents of power, has
been damning. Those who aspire to dialogue
often have a moral rejection of one-way forms
of communication. A misunderstanding of
one-way and persuasive communication has
created a skewed view of the role and place of
dialogue in public relations. This article
explores the philosophical underpinnings and
key features of dialogue and its antithesis,
non-dialogue, or dissemination within the
communication field. It revisits some of the
propositions made by the ancient Greeks and
modern theorists about communication and
dialogue, and how multiple interpretations of
what constitutes a dialogue have become
blurred. It considers the idea that in recent
times dialogue has been uncritically equated
to ‘good’ communication and that one-way
communication is ‘bad’ or, at least ‘less than
best’. The article argues that both forms are
equally important and have existed in the
thoughts of theorists and philosophers
throughout the ages. While the discussion
focuses on this premise from a
communication perspective, reference to
public relations and marketing activities in
the context of social media and the Internet
are made. Dialogue requires a sense of
exchange, interchange, mutuality, and some
sense of reciprocity.
Citation
Mersham, G. M. (2014). Dialogue, non–dialogue and dissemination—Ancient questions, contemporary perspectives. Prism, 11(2), 1-16. Retrieved from http://www.prismjournal.org/homepage.html.