Introduction
Communication is the most crucial element of human civilization, enabling people to cooperate, understand each other, solve conflicts, and reach goals. One can use communication models to see how the communication process goes and which types are possible. Various types of communication are close encounters in romantic relationships, business communication, and mass media communication. Intercultural communication is an important addition that shows how multiple cultures can be described and understood. Rhetorical communication includes a toolkit for persuasion and argumentation, valid for all communication types. Ethical principles which apply to all mentioned types are essential to learn and understand, as they make the communication process much easier, safer, and more efficient.
Communication Ethics
Communication Models
Before analyzing various communication types, one should explore the process of communication in general, along with models used to describe it. Communication consists of three elements: communicators, messages, and a medium, which determines the context (Littlejohn et al., 2017). Communicators are actors who engage in the process of exchanging messages which contain certain information. A medium is a context of communication: it can be described as a set of qualities of a place where the communication goes. In addition, it includes other people engaged in contact or parameters of a social network if it is online.
One can distinguish several communication models, which enable one to see how people can communicate efficiently. Three are described: linear, interactive, and transactional, based on relationships between communicators and a medium (Kobiruzzaman, 2021). A linear model is a simple transfer of a message from one communicator to another and vice versa without feedback. The interactive model is more complex: it includes feedback during each message transfer and adds the noise of a medium which can decrease the communication quality. Lastly, the most complex transactional model describes each communicator as having a separate encoder and decoder, which shows how they interpret and send messages, for example, as they listen and talk (Alberts et al., 2011). They communicate consistently, and feedback is a message itself that forms a response to the message of another party. The context of communication media is described as well, showing its influence on messages and both communicators. Therefore, the transactional model is the fullest one, including as many communication qualities as possible, and it is preferred.
Another important element of communication is the impression of all communication parties, which includes their emotions and feelings and their influence on the communication process. The integrative model of relational impression formation shows how a rapport, a connection between communication parties, is formed: it contains four attributes: content, target, perceiver, and context (Quadflieg & Westmoreland, 2019). Content attributes visualize the message and its effect on the receiver, while target attributes describe nonverbal communication elements, such as eye proximity and distance. Perceiver attributes include the receiver’s attitude, corresponding to the decoder of the transactional model and showing how they will react to the message, and context attributes describe the quality of the communication medium.
Communication Ethics
Communication ethics is described as the complex decision-making rules that make communication easier, more pleasant, and more efficient. While it may seem that ethics is excessive and unethical, rude, and manipulative people are more successful, their success is only short-run, and they inevitably fall in the long-term perspective. There is a framework for ethical decision-making in communication, which helps one to act rightly. The first step is recognizing the issue, then fact-gathering, alternative evaluation with their outcome, and choosing the less harmful and most beneficial alternative (Alberts et al., 2011). Self-integrity is important for acting ethically: fully understanding oneself, accepting both strong and weak sides, learning to manage one’s emotions, and avoiding lying (Firestone & Catlett, 2018). Therefore, ethical communication requires the ability to analyze one’s words, actions, and consequences and highly increases communication efficiency.
Normative ethics proposes theories that prescribe how one can define right decisions and why they are right. Several theories are useful in applying to communication: duty-based, consequentialist, social contract, and virtue ethics (Almonte, 2022). Duty-based ethics is based on categorical duties, which should be proposed based on whether they are good for humanity as a whole, while consequentialism judges actions based on whether their consequences are good or bad. Social contract ethics, unlike them, grounds on primary human needs and includes norms that satisfy those needs, while virtue ethics suggests an analysis of all actions and classifying them as beneficial or harmful. Ethical communication requires a clear presentation of facts, an analysis of values and principles behind these facts, and stating the communicator’s position (Christians et al., 2017). According to Caballero et al. (2018), voice choice is as important as word choice, and neglecting it is often a reason for conflict because people often interpret harsh voices as unfriendly. To summarize, ethical communication should be concise, truthful, and based on principles that minimize possible harm from it and maximize benefits.
Communication Skills
Those are skills that enable more efficient and ethical communication; they are often called soft skills as opposed to hard skills, which mean specialized professional knowledge.
- Understanding the context means the ability to catch each word’s sense regarding the communicator’s cultural background, the medium of communication, and the situation in which the communication proceeds. In addition, it helps one to choose the context of communication wisely, preferring low-context media, such as face-to-face conversation, or high-context, such as talking in a company, depending on the situation (Littlejohn et al., 2017).
- Emotional intelligence (EI) is essential, as it allows one to perceive their and others’ emotions, analyze them, and understand how to deal with them. With high emotional intelligence, one can feel what another person feels, share their feelings, and, thus, establish a strong and efficient connection (Braithwaite & Schrodt, 2022). EI can be increased by developing empathy, exploring one’s emotions, and learning to distinguish them from each other.
- Nonverbal skills include mimics and gestures, which play a large role in any communication. When one can use them consciously and understand the nonverbal signs of another, they are most likely to find a common language, mainly if belonging to the same culture (Nishishiba, 2017). The ability to control one’s mimics and gestures and use them in communication consciously will significantly improve communication.
- Problem- and conflict-solving orientation means the approach directed at awareness and understanding of problems. While not avoiding them, it is most efficient to concentrate on the ways of solving them and the opportunities they provide (Almonte, 2022).
- Confidence and good self-esteem help cope with negative emotions and remain stable after all encounters. A calm, confident, and expressive attitude allows one to reach one’s goals more likely both in close and business relationships (Guerrero et al., 2018).
- Rhetoric skills include logical reasoning, grounding one’s views, and persuading others. They increase the chance of reaching success in all communications while remaining rational and ethical (Ramage et al., 2019).
- Ethical knowledge is the most important, as it provides instruction on how to use all other skills most efficiently. It includes using normative ethics principles, situation analysis, and outcome evaluation to choose the best one (Alberts et al., 2011).
Intercultural Communication
One of the modern world’s peculiarities is its openness and, thus, many intersection points of various cultures. People of different nationalities from different countries often work and study together, and while it provides an opportunity for cultural exchange, it may also increase cross-cultural tensions. People with different cultural backgrounds and value systems can easily conflict based on a simple misunderstanding. However, everyone can develop cultural mindfulness and competence, perceiving other cultures and learning to deal with them efficiently and peacefully.
Cultural Background and Values
One’s culture greatly influences an individual’s life, conditioning their views, beliefs, morals, and ideals. Essentially, the cultural background is an adopted symbolic system shared with others who are also members of a particular cultural group (Klyukanov, 2020). It means that, first, these symbols describe the individual their beliefs and ethics, and second, the individual can easily find a common language with those who share these symbols. In addition, their context attributes and nonverbal communication patterns will also be similar (Quadflieg & Westmoreland, 2019). However, people with other cultural backgrounds will have different symbolic systems and, thus, are less likely to understand each other (Panocová, 2020). Still, if they try to communicate their views, attitudes, and beliefs and perceive them, they will have the opportunity to adopt the symbolic systems of each other.
Cultures may be categorized using various scales: individualistic/collectivistic, high- and low-context, mono- and polychronic, high and low uncertainty avoidance, and high/low power distance. Individualistic cultures see an individual as the foundational cultural element, while collectivistic ones consider a group as such an element (Nishishiba, 2017). Therefore, collectivistic people are more attached to other representatives of their culture and prefer to act together, while individualistic people focus on their own life and personal success. High-context cultures are based on a complex system of gestures and other signs and consider it unethical to speak directly, while low-context ones prefer clear, concise, and direct talks. Monochronic and polychronic cultures differ in their relations with time. Monochronic people prefer to do one task at once and stick to plans and goals, while polychronic ones attach to people and are much more flexible. Lastly, uncertainty avoidance and power distance define how a culture deals with uncertainty and power distribution across its members. Therefore, each culture has a unique set of five parameters that enable one to describe and understand it.
Intercultural Conflicts
People from different cultures often see similar things differently, which may lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. When a person from monochronic culture, such as a typical American, meets a person with polychronic background, such as a Latino, they may easily get irritated with each other (Nishishiba, 2017). Monochronic people adhere to plans strictly, while polychronic ones are committed to people and values rather than plans and goals and can change them easily, enraging the former. High- and low-context cultures are likely to engage in the conflict, too. While people with low-context backgrounds tend to speak frankly and directly about everything, those with high-context cultures say shortly and use nonverbal language to express additional details (Liu, 2016). The former can feel deceived by such an approach of people from high-context cultures, while the direct approach of people from low-context cultures may be perceived as aggression and even hostility.
Cultural Mindfulness and Competence
Understanding the cultural background of other people enables one to work freely with different cultures’ representatives and conduct a cultural exchange. People can change their patterns of communication quite quickly when they have a good purpose and motivation and, thus, can communicate with various cultures (Liu, 2016). Cultural mindfulness, therefore, is the recognition that people from other cultures share different assumptions and can react unpredictably to one’s words (Nishishiba, 2017). This uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of intercultural communication, and accepting it leads to the opportunity to perceive others’ assumptions, understand their culture, and establish a good connection with them (Klyukanov, 2020). In addition to mindfulness, cultural competence includes knowledge about the opposite culture and the ability to use its symbols in communication (Panocová, 2020). Therefore, by increasing one’s cultural mindfulness and competence, one makes communication more ethical and efficient, increasing chances of success both at work and in personal life.
Communication in Close Relationships
Close relationships include friendship, romantic, and family relationships, which, despite being drastically different, are quite similar from an ethical point of view. When meeting a potential friend or partner, the first impression is essential, as it usually determines whether the relationship will develop (Firestone & Catlett, 2018; Quadflieg & Westmoreland, 2019). One can describe the development of a romantic relationship by using a staircase model, where the first steps are the initiation of relationships, and the four middle steps are a cycle of relationship maintenance. If it is unsuccessful, there are last steps of relationship stagnation and further termination (Guerrero et al., 2018). People in close relationships are vulnerable to each other’s negative emotions and toxic behavior due to their closeness, and thus, they require some moral efforts to be maintained successfully, such as mastering one’s anger (Firestone & Catlett, 2018). Therefore, successful close relationships are quite demanding and require personal and interpersonal work.
Relationships may be ended due to various reasons, but the most frequent is stagnation, running out, or inappropriate behavior of one of the partners. Toxic relationships are a large challenge for a partner’s life: to overcome them, one requires confidence and immediate actions: first, to tell the partner harshly to stop and, if it will not work, to leave (Guerrero et al., 2018). When close relationships are ended, even if they were toxic, one usually feels extreme sorrow, often with suicidal tendencies. To cope with this negative, one can temporarily distract by switching activities, self-soothe oneself, trying to mediate and relax, and searching for social support (Stallman, 2020). In that way, one should adopt healthy coping skills to deal with possible negatives caused by close relationship problems and termination.
Business Communication
Business communication is used in workplaces to solve problems and realize various business goals, such as workflow optimization and profit increase. Opposite to close encounters, this type of communication always implies a distance and some horizontal and vertical organization (Alberts et al., 2011). The concept of power distance describes how strong the formal organization and vertical of power are in a company (Dai et al., 2022). The more distance, the more rigid those structures and, therefore, the more power have bosses and managers over their subordinates. The company’s corporate culture determines those structures and how its employees are integrated with them (Guffey, 2022). The cultural background has an influence, too: as mentioned in Part II, there are cultures with high and low power distance, which measures how authoritarian or democratic their representatives are (Nishishiba, 2017). In that way, various companies have various organizations, which depend on their cultural background and corporate culture.
While there are informal business communications, which are more casual than formal ones, they still have clear aims and goals. In business and other organizations, communication is only a tool that should be used carefully, and too much communication is usually as wrong as too little, resulting in a waste of words (Alberts et al., 2011). Using logic to persuade and argue one’s position is valuable in business communication, as they lead to efficient and profitable data-driven decisions (Graves & Graves, 2021). Clear, analytical, and concise language aimed at goal setting, people organization, and directing them toward a mutual aim, is essential for business communication (Darics & Koller, 2019). Therefore, business communication is characterized by clearness, conciseness, focusing on a problem or opportunities, and having a clearly defined organization and power distance.
Mass Media Communication and Ethics
The Internet and mass media are essential elements of modern life: they include social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and online media websites, such as BBC or CNN. People use social networks and messengers to communicate with others across the globe, share their ideas, gain popularity, and launch businesses (Graham & Dutton, 2019). Politicians and activists use it to spread their ideas and find supporters, and business people use social media to sell goods and promote brands (Christians et al., 2017). There are, however, issues connected with unethical social media usage, which may make social activity on the Internet dangerous
Issues: Hate Speech, Deception, Privacy Breaches, and Others
Along with excellent communication opportunities, mass media also provides “opportunities” for unethical people, which results in a large amount of deceptive information. Hate speech is direct calls to violence and coercion toward a particular social group, and they are dangerous as it may easily inflate aggression, even on a national or international level (Wilkins & Christians, 2020). Fake news and other untrue information, while being present in mass media before, are much more widespread and complex today, as it is easier to do and distribute using the Internet (Finneman & Thomas, 2018). Therefore, there are many threats and issues when communicating via the Internet or mass media, and the excessive amount of information today makes them more dangerous.
Mass Media Ethics
Skills of ethical communication are essential for safe and efficient mass media communication. Many people use mass media, and all moral principles mentioned in Parts I – IV apply to this medium (Fourie, 2017). One should avoid hate speeches, deception, and offensive posts, which may have an extensive negative effect. There are other points, however, essential for the mass media: respecting others’ privacy and being responsible for all posts, as they are public (Christians et al., 2017). Others can access everything written as a post on the Internet if it is not a private message or private group post, which means that one is responsible for all effects it may cause (Rosenberry & Vicker, 2017). To summarize, mass media opens immense opportunities for communication and idea spreading, but one should follow ethical principles, respect others’ privacy and be responsible for their posts to make their mass media activity efficient.
Rhetorical Communication and Ethics
Rhetoric is a science of persuasion; therefore, rhetoric communication aims at challenging one’s views and arguing why one should change them. Rhetorical communication includes discussions, public speeches, social media posting, and colleague persuasion and, in general, can be applied to all fields of communication discussed above. In close relationships, friends, relatives, or partners often need to negotiate to understand each other and agree (Guerrero et al., 2018). In business relationships, rhetorical communication is used to solve problems and develop viable business approaches (Graves & Graves, 2021). Mass media users use rhetoric for persuasion extensively, such as for launching a marketing or political campaign (Wilkins & Christians, 2020). In that way, rhetoric is a universal tool that can strengthen a communicator’s position during the communication process.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
These are three primary components of rhetoric: ethos corresponds to ethical principles, which are communicated, logos to their logical grounding, and pathos to the emotions expressed. Ethos is the core of the speaker’s position: its values, attractiveness, and benefits it would bring to others when accepted (Alberts et al., 2011). Logos is a set of logical reasoning to defend the speaker’s position, explain how they reach it, and explain why it is important. Lastly, pathos includes all emotions expressed by a speaker to influence the audience and listeners and make them accept a speaker’s position.
Applying Rhetoric
One can divide the application of rhetorical communication into two primary areas: public speaking and debates. Public speaking is a rhetorical communication in a format one-to-many: when one person, a speaker, communicate with the whole audience (Alberts et al., 2011). Debates are one-to-one communication, usually in pairs or small groups, when a group of people discusses some ideas and persuade each other about whose opinion is the best and why. Both approaches are widely used in all interpersonal communication types.
Ethics Of Rhetoric
Whether it is a public speech or discussion, rhetorical communication has its own ethical principles, which will increase communication efficiency and reduce the risk of aggressive conflicts. While one can violate the boundaries of conventional ethics via rhetoric, which includes the influence on others’ emotions through pathos and using facts for one’s benefit, lying and hate speeches should never be used (Alberts et al., 2011). In addition, openness to others’ opinions and the ability to listen to them are essential for ethical rhetorical communication.
Summary and Conclusion
As one can see, many types of communication are in use in different situations, and each of them has an ethical dimension. The communication process consists of communicators, messages exchanged by them, and the medium which creates a context. Despite each type being different, communication ethics have common points: respect others’ feelings, be clear, trustful, and concise, be open for discussions, and analyze and evaluate facts. Ethics is essential for a successful life, increasing communication efficiency, quality, and safety. When people from different cultures meet, they can engage in conflict due to misunderstanding, but all disputes can be prevented and resolved by perceiving and understanding each other’s cultural peculiarities. Social media enable people to spread information around the world, but for safe and ethical use, one should avoid hate speeches and deception, respect others’ privacy and be responsible for their posts. Lastly, rhetorical instruments of ethos, logos, and pathos may be used to improve communication quality, but one should still avoid lying and abusing and be ready to listen to the opponent.
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