From the dark to the light side: Questioning (theor)ethical boundaries as a way to redefine communication
Résumé
The question of the so-called “dark side of communication” embraces a variety of communication practices and concepts, ranging from “dark public relations”, “dark intercultural communication” to “dark side of social media”. This seems to be at the cornerstone of growing interests in our disciplines, for PR and communication practitioners as well as the civil society actors, all debate the opacity of public relations and organizational communication practices (Oreskes & Conway, 2010; Proctor, 2012). Likewise, organizational communication and public relations researchers across countries and communication research traditions are questioning topics like “communication on sensitive subjects” (Libaert, 2006 & 2013), “crisis communication” and its limits (Heath & O’Hair, 2010; Johansen, Aggerholm, and Frandsen, 2012), lobbying abuses (Arboit, 2006) and organizational communication malpractices (i.e. lies) (Vaughan, 1999; Benoit, 2003). Moreover, international communication conferences on the “dark side” or “boundaries” of communication are organized with interdisciplinary and bridging perspectives on this topic in France: “darkside-2019: le « côté obscur » de la communication des organisations” (Org&Co, 2019) or in Danemark: “The Dark Side of Communication” (Aalborg, 2019). How can we explain this convergence of research questioning both the ethical and theoretical boundaries of our field of research?