Ethics, Communication, and Propaganda About Energetic and Environmental Topics

Abstract

This paper aims at disentangling and explaining the meaning of communication, which should not be confused with the mere transmission of information. The focus will be put on scientific and technological communication, mainly in the field of energetic and environmental topics. Communication is a profession practiced by speakers and writers working within the mass media (newspapers, television, internet, etc.), but other people are involved in communication issues, particularly when communication deals with scientific and technological topics. Scientists, technicians and professionals, and engineers in particular, have a great responsibility when participating in the spread of technical information, which should not be confused with propaganda, whose meaning is explained in the paper. The paper will be developed in two stages. Firstly, by offering a conceptual framework, it will be argued that communication, rightly understood, is a special kind of action that is characterized by an ethical commitment, which should permeate our daily life, in particular the professional experience. On the contrary, propaganda cannot constitute an authentic communicative context because it involves senders and receivers, and not interlocutors. Indeed, propaganda generally aims at influencing opinions, attitudes and actions of a specific target audience on the basis of senders’ personal interest or ideological thinking. Secondly, practical examples will be provided in the scientific and technical fields, with particular attention given to energetic and environmental issues. In fact, this is a critical context, because people are generally not prepared to deeply understand this matter and can easily be manipulated. Some examples will show how a given reality can be partially presented or misrepresented when speaking about the concept of sustainability, the evaluation of health or safety risks, the assessment of the potentiality of renewable energy sources, the difference between energy sources and energy carriers, the interpretation of climate changes, or the ideological opposition to industrial initiatives.