ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the theories of Jurgen Habermas concerning understanding and validity claims. The idea of Habermas's "public sphere" was not only widely acknowledged but also criticized – sometimes it is argued that the quality of the created idea of the public sphere "was only ever an approximation". The aim of consensus-oriented public relations (COPR) is to facilitate what one hopes will be a smooth communication process between the public relations client and the relevant members of the public. A central effort of Theory of Communicative Action is to reconstruct universal conditions of understanding within the human communication process. A break down in the communication process can happen when the relevant members of the public doubt one or more of the claims of validity. COPR then has to take the need for discourse seriously and make attempts to facilitate a discourse-like situation, according to the theory of communicative action.
