Communication Ethics and Crisis

S. Alyssa Groom is assistant professor of communication & rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University. Janie M. Harden Fritz is associate professor of communication & rhetorical studies at Duquesne University.

In this unified collection, Groom and Fritz (both, Duquesne Univ.) feature prominent and rising American ethics scholars. In three distinct sections, these essays establish that crisis reactions can be understood through the presentation of a narrative; investigate the idea of a productive distance between a crisis and the responder, despite the impossibility of mastering the crisis; and distinguish the differences between public and private contexts. The editors assert that a banal view of crisis has developed due to its increased permeation of public and private spheres. Celeste Grayson Seymour confirms this position in her essay, 'Understanding Anxiety: The Crisis of Ethical Choice'; she explains that this universal human crisis is due to the restless state of existence. In 'The Crisis Fallacy: Egoism, Epistemology, and Ethics in Crisis Communication and Preparation,' Pat Gehrke (Univ. of South Carolina) invites the reader to turn unreflective engagement into reflective engagement. This unique collection extends the conversation on communication ethics and crisis communication through its multiplicity of perspectives. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsContributorsIntroductionPart One:Narrativity and SituatednessMoviegoing Epideictic: Walker Percy and the Rhetorical TraditionDialogic Meeting of Crisis: Illuminating Illusions Of The Death Of God and Nietzsche's Revaluation of ValuesUnderstanding Anxiety: The Crisis of Ethical ChoicePart Two:Response-ability as Inner TransparencyInterpersonal Crisis Communication in the Workplace: Professional Civility as Ethical Response to Problematic InteractionsQuestioning Back: Engaging an Organization's Narrative for Ethical Communicative Responsiveness in Crisis SituationsThe Ethical Imperative Of Significant Choice: Addressing Learning Styles in Crisis MessagesPart Three:Discerning Public and Private SpheresA More Perfect Union: Recovering Ethics in Public DialogueThe Crisis Fallacy: Egoism, Epistemology, and Ethics in Crisis Communication and PreparationCommunication Ethics as Janus at the Gates: Responding to Postmodernity and the Normativity of Crisis