ABSTRACT
Communication as a scientific concept is hard to discuss since it is studied and analyzed in so many ways in all kinds of discipline. Strategic communication may be interpreted as a direction that has its origin in three fields of knowledge: mass communication theory, organizational theory, and the humanities. This chapter begins by describing the two fundamental perspectives of communication: transmission and ritual. The theory in public relations that has received the most attention has a strong relationship to the division. Jurgen Habermas belongs to a later generation of critical theory and has in particular developed theories of transformations of the public sphere and communicative action. The symmetry model also received criticism for being utopian and rather obscure—neglecting issues of power that are unavoidable in practice. The mixed motive model, inspired by game theory, is a compromise between symmetry and asymmetry and is based on negotiation as a central concept.
