Ethics and theories of communication: power, interactions, and participative culture

The aim of this paper is to make an epistemological approach of the ethical conceptionspresented in the main Communication Theories, identifying in some of its epistemological proposalselements of an ethos. It is highlighted how these theories approach communicative mediatedprocesses and at the same time propose procedures and practical actions. We developour argument in a historical-critical perspective, mapping how notions of power, communicativecapacities and constitution of the political citizen, among others are interlaced to the theoreticalarticulations of the research field. The analysis is developed around three perspectives: (a) antisymmetrical,evincing the way power is placed side by side with media; (b) symmetrical, makingequivalent, in different spaces, media producers and receivers; (c) paritarian, with intersectionsbetween these two types of agents in a participative culture. The text analyzes these three perspectivesfocusing the ruptures and continuities between ethics and epistemology.