What ethics for governmental communication?: ethical issues on government public relations

• Gisela Goncalves ^[1] ; José Manuel Santos ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidade da Beira Interior

     Universidade da Beira Interior

     Covilhã (Conceição), Portugal

     
• Localización: Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas, ISSN-e 2174-3681, Vol. 7, Nº. 14 (julio-diciembre), 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Docencia en Relaciones Públicas en Brasil), págs. 165-182
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Que ética para a comunicação governamental?: questões éticas nas relações públicas governamentais
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen
  • português

    Como o governo é simultaneamente uma organização pública e política, o objetivo principal da sua comunicação é complexo. A comunicação governamental oscila entre marketing político e a finalidade mais nobre das relações públicas governamentais – informar os cidadãos e promover uma comunicação bidirecional. Neste artigo, debate-se os critérios de avaliação da comunicação governamental, tanto a nível teórico como aplicado, a partir da ética das virtudes. Em vez de se centrar a análise ética nas consequências da ação (utilitarismo), ou numa lista de deveres (ética deontológica), defende-se que o verdadeiro fundamento da vida moral e a coerência ético-política se encontra no carácter do agente, seja ele o governante ou o profissional de relações públicas. Este argumento é ilustrado com um exemplo recente da comunicação do Governo de Portugal.

  • English

    As government is both a public and a political organization the goal of communication can thus be complex. Government communication balances between political marketing and the noble aim of government public relations – inform citizens and promote bidirectional communication. The aim of this article is to discuss the evaluation criteria of government communication, both theoretically and applied, based on the ethics of virtues. Instead of focusing the ethical analysis on the consequences of action (utilitarianism), or on a list of duties (deontological ethics), it is argued that the true foundation of moral life and ethical-political coherence lies in the character of the agent, be it the politician or the public relations professional. This argument is illustrated by a recent example of the communication from the Government of Portugal.

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