797.4
On the Relation Between Well-Being and Communication: The Ethical Turn in Conceptualization of Communication with Case Analyses of Negotiation and Decision-Making in Pepfar

Monday, July 14, 2014: 4:15 PM
Room: 422
Oral Presentation
Bilyana MARTINOVSKI , Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
James G. LINN , Optimal Solutions in Healthcare & International Development
Conceptualization of communication has a crucial effect on communication itself
 
and on communication research. This paper explores how communication affects
 
and is affected by psychological well-being with case examples from an HIV/AIDS
 
international treatment program(PEPFAR) implemented in Southern Africa. It calls for a
 
re-evaluation of Weaver's metaphor on communication as exchange of  information
 
and develops Buber's and Peters' ideas on communication as a manifestation
 
of the ethical,where the ethical is described as openness to otherness and
 
communication is viewed as a tension between reproduction of Self with
 
alterity. Mutuality is not viewed as a necessary condition for the ethical because it
 
involves intimacy that can only be discretely expressed. It is assumed that the
 
end of theodicy is not the end of the ethical because the ethical is a space of
 
profound intimacy,beyond preachment. Extreme cases of annihilation of
 
otherness can't be described as rational in some cases and not others, and have
 
deeper roots than modernity. The paper identifies challenges for the ethical
 
turn in communication such as patriarchal order, implantations , involvement
 
of the ego, dehumanization,isolation of larger contexts, traumatic disorders,and
 
states of denial.  It also identifies what enhances communication as an ethical
 
process:reciprocal adaptation, intercultural communication, nurturing of hybrid
 
cultures, and distance taking techniques such as time,distance, attention/topic
 
shift,emotions such as feelings of awe,and art.
 
     Case analyses of negotiation and decision-making in PEPFAR are discussed.
 
Implications of effective interpersonal & intercultural communication through the
 
process of reciprocal adaptation for program success, reduced participant stress,
 
and higher participant morale and psychological well-being in HIV/AIDS treatment
 
programs in Southern Africa are described.