ABSTRACT
Strategic communication is at the center of communication studies, whether we link strategic communication to intentionally motivated purposes or define the strategic aspect as an inherent part of every communication. In either case, we face an attribution, we make an assessment relating to our observations, and we assign a specific value to communication. Then again, defining strategic communication in the realms of organizational communication is by nature a deliberative operation: the purposeful use of communication to fulfill an organization’s mission (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler, Vercˇicˇ & Sriramesh, 2007). However, regardless of the impact of strategic communication in terms of ethical considerations, the nature of the term strategic reveals one aspect in particular: Strategic communication provides legitimacy for actors to achieve specific goals. More specifically, beyond the attribution of strategic purposes in communication, and beyond the suspicion towards communication as strategic intent, there is a transparent field of application—in corporate communications, public relations and, especially, advertising—whose raison d’être is accounted for by the expectation that goals will be achieved: A mission has to be accomplished for communication to be effective. Strategic communication is thus always related to actor groups who are in charge of doing strategy.
